


Fair Trade

by Jcapasso916



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-14 14:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 38,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jcapasso916/pseuds/Jcapasso916
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucifer takes Gabriel prisoner at Elysian Fields instead of killing him, but Sam can't manage to set him free before jumping into hell. Luckily his soulless self seems to think that having an archangel in his debt may be useful. Gabriel has other ideas though and makes a deal with Death to get Sam's soul back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

As Sam and Dean sped away from hotel hell, they barely noticed Kali disappear from the backseat, leaving two vials of blood behind. Apparently saving her was enough to get her to release them even if it didn’t get them so much as a thank you. As expected, as soon as she was gone Sam started arguing to go back. “You cannot be serious,” Dean said despite knowing that he very much was. 

“We can’t just let Gabriel die for us, Dean,” he argued. 

“The hell we can’t. This is his fight. It’s his family. It’s about time he sacked up and took care of it. What do you think we can do that an archangel can’t?” Dean asked. 

“I don’t know, but I think Gabriel is our best chance of stopping this. At the very least his blade is the only thing that will kill Lucifer,” Sam pointed out. 

“And if they’re still fighting how do you plan to get it? If they’re not, then it can wait until tomorrow when we’re more sure that Lucifer is gone.”

Sam had to admit that Dean had a point and reluctantly gave in. When they got to the hotel the next day though, no one was there. No Gabriel, no Lucifer, no bodies. They both tried multiple times to pray to Gabriel but got no response. Sam was exceedingly stubborn about it. He insisted that if Gabriel was dead there would be a body or at least burnt wings somewhere to be found, and if Gabriel wasn’t answering their prayers, then he must be being held prisoner. 

Dean didn’t exactly dispute his point. Especially after Gabriel didn’t answer the ‘if you don’t answer we’ll assume Lucifer has you and hunt him down and interrogate him to find you’ prayer. After all the trouble he went to in order to get them away from Lucifer he was sure that would have brought the archangel running if he could have. Where Dean differed, however, was what to do about it. “Look. Sam. I get it. Really. I don’t like leaving him in Lucifer’s hands either, but going toe to toe with Lucifer to try and get him back is suicidal.”

“So what…you just wanna do nothing?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“If we get a tip that leads us to him, then I’ll be right there with you trying to bust him out. But in the meantime rather than chase shadows, let’s do the job he left to us and get the rest of the horsemen.” Neither of them were particularly fond of the archangel, but he had stepped up in the end and saved their lives, and given them a way out of this mess. They’d save him if they could, but not at the expense of the world and Sam finally saw that. 

When the time came for Sam to say yes to Lucifer and jump in the hole though, the argument came up again. “You said if we got a lead, if we had a chance, we’d get him. I’ll have direct access to Lucifer. I can free Gabriel and then jump in the hole.”

“And if Lucifer gets control back from you? Then he has the rings and we’re screwed,” Dean pointed out. 

“Ok so how about this. I’ll go free Gabriel, then come back to you, and you can keep the rings.”

“Why don’t we just make freeing Gabriel part of the deal for you saying yes?” Dean asked as if it should be obvious. 

“Of course I’m going to try that first, but if it doesn’t work, we need a backup plan.”

“I still think it’s too risky,” Dean said shaking his head. “But I’ll leave it up to you.” He wasn’t good at this whole trust thing, but he was trying. 

As expected Lucifer turned down the deal to release Gabriel in return for the yes. He knew about the rings and their plan. They had no leverage at all. He was ‘nice’ enough to agree to let Dean go though. Plan or not, Sam wouldn’t have done it without at least that reassurance. Once the bright light filled the room, Nick’s body lay dead on the floor and Lucifer was in Sam he turned to Dean. “I got him, Dean. It’s okay. And I know where Gabriel is. I’ll go get him and then we end this.”

“Be careful, Sammy, and be quick,” Dean said hoping that he could keep control long enough to pull it off. 

Sam reappeared in an old warehouse where he found Gabriel chained to a wall. He could see the sigils all over the chains and cuffs and knew that they were cutting off Gabriel’s powers. The archangel looked a little worse for wear but still in one piece. “Gabriel!” he cried rushing over and fiddling with the cuffs. 

Gabriel lifted his head and looked at Sam before he looked away. “Why, Sam?” he asked brokenly. Everything he’d gone through and Sam had said yes anyway. 

“Because we have a plan. Don’t worry,” Sam told him as he tried to open the cuffs. 

“It won’t work,” Gabriel told him. “He won’t let you release me.”

“He doesn’t have a say.”

“Of course he does. If you’re in control for this long it’s because he’s letting you be. He’s always in control. Even when he’s not.” 

“Why bother then?” Sam argued trying to give Gabriel some hope while he continued working the cuffs. 

“Because he knew that seeing him in you would torture me even more,” Gabriel said sadly. “Just go Sam. Whatever plan you think you have go, give it a shot, because he’ll never let you get me out of here.”

Sam’s body suddenly stiffened and a cruel look overtook the hunter’s face. “Well you just ruin all my fun don’t you baby brother?” 

“Fuck off Luci,” Gabriel snapped. 

Lucifer reached forward and yanked Gabriel’s hair back as he loomed over him menacingly. “Watch your tone, Gabriel,” he warned. 

Even after two months Gabriel never once submitted to his brother, and he just glared at Lucifer with fire in his eyes as he hissed, “Or what?” Lucifer much preferred psychological torture to physical torture and most of Gabriel’s life had been psychological torture so he had thicker skin than the other archangel had anticipated. 

“Or I might just have to make Sammy here watch me tear you apart. You know he’s screaming for you now? ‘Please don’t hurt him!’” he mocked cruelly. 

“You’re gonna do whatever the hell you want with me regardless of what I say,” Gabriel snapped bitterly. If he could only hang onto one thing here it would damn well be his dignity. 

“That’s true,” Lucifer admitted with a smirk as he let go of Gabriel’s hair and stepped away. “However, I don’t have to let Sam watch,” he said with a shrug. “I could just smother him down so he can’t feel your bones breaking beneath his hands, so he can’t taste your blood as I lick it from his fingers, so he can’t hear your screams echoing through the room,” he said in a velvety voice. “Something tells me would be better off without that don’t you think?”

“Like he would break that easy,” Gabriel curled his lip at his brother.

“You sure seem to have a lot of faith in the little hunter, don’t you baby brother. You even sacrificed yourself for him.” Lucifer ran a long nail down Gabriel’s cheek, opening a deep cut in its wake. “You knew you didn’t have the guts to do it, so you sent him to do your dirty work.”

“It’s not about guts, Lucifer. It’s about principles. I know that’s a foreign concept to you and all.”

“Principles huh? Is that the lie you tell yourself to get by?” It was classic Lucifer. Trying to make people doubt themselves. Gabriel wasn’t nearly so gullible though. He knew exactly who and what he was and made no apologies for any of it. He wouldn’t be manipulated.

“Gabriel!” he suddenly gasped and the archangel could see that Sam was in control again as he reached for the restraints.

“It won’t work Sam. Really. There’s no time to break the warding and the only other way they will come off is if you could channel his power which you can’t. He’s still just playing with us, Sam, but if you do take control…leave…do what you intend to do…don’t worry about me.”

“I can’t…Gabriel I can’t. You’re in this mess because of me.”

“No I’m not. I’m in it because of me. And if you beat him…if you win…I won’t be here long,” Gabriel lied without remorse. He had to convince Sam if he wanted the hunter to go. 

“Oh really, baby brother. And how exactly are you going to escape hmm?” Lucifer was back. 

Gabriel smirked. Lucifer wasn’t the one he needed to convince, but Sam was probably still watching. “You really think I haven’t learned a few things over the years. I am the trickster after all. Once you’re out of the picture, I’ll be out of here in no time big brother,” he said smugly. 

“Well as much as I would love to stand around and banter with you, I have another brother to play with first, but I will be back for you, Gabriel.”

When they were interrupted by Dean in the graveyard, Lucifer killed both Castiel and the old hunter, and was close to killing his brother’s true vessel, when Sam managed to actually overpower him. 

Sam stumbled a bit as he finally took control and yeah. He could feel the difference now and knew that Lucifer really was playing with him before. He took the rings from Dean and managed to jump in the hole, pulling Michael in with him and hoping that Gabriel would be able to escape like he said he would.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam looked in the window at Dean having dinner with his family and he found that he didn’t really care. If his brother would rather have that little family than him, then that was fine. He wasn’t really sure what to do with himself now, but he supposed he might as well hunt. It would be something to do. He suddenly remembered the archangel hanging from the wall in the warehouse and wondered if he’d managed to escape. If not, it would be nice to have an archangel owing him one. It could definitely come in handy some time. 

Sam made his way for where he remembered the warehouse to be and found Gabriel still hanging there weakly. The archangel looked up as he entered and narrowed his eyes at him. It took him a second to see what was different about the hunter and he hissed angrily. Lucifer was gone, but so was Sam’s soul. He was just an empty shell. Gabriel knew then and there that this was going to be a negotiation. “Are you here to free me?” he started the conversation.

“That depends,” Sam said thoughtfully looking him over. It looked like Gabriel had lied to him about being able to escape once Lucifer was out of the way. It had been about a week and he was still here. Not that he cared really. It actually helped him. “See it would be convenient to have an archangel on my side, but then you’ve never really been one to do the expected.”

“So you’re looking for some sort of guarantee that I’ll…what? What is it you want from me?” Gabriel asked. 

“When I call you have to come and help me with whatever I need,” Sam told him. 

“So you want me to be at your beck and call?” Gabriel asked.

“Exactly. I mean it’s either that or stay here forever,” Sam said with a shrug. 

Only the fact that Gabriel had no intention of living up to it had him agreeing to the proposal. He was making his own plans. And first priority was to find out what the hell happened. No. First priority was to get Sam to somewhere that he couldn’t hurt himself or anyone else. Then find out what the hell was going on, then fix this travesty. 

As soon as he was freed from the restraints and his power flowed back into him, he grabbed Sam’s wrist and flew them away. The best place for him would be with someone who could take care of him while Gabriel worked on fixing this, and had a place to hold him, so they appeared back in Bobby Singer’s panic room, the old hunter being drawn to the yelling coming from Sam as he realized that he’d been tricked. “Can’t trick the trickster kid,” he said with a smirk as he transported himself outside the panic room to talk to the old guy. 

“What the hell is going on boy?” he asked suspiciously. He wanted to let Sam out, but would wait to hear why he was in there first. 

Gabriel suppressed his amusement at being called boy as he did his best to explain. “I’m not sure completely. Here’s what I know. That in there…is a shell. Sam’s soul is…I don’t know where. I was hanging in Lucifer’s little torture chamber when he walks in and starts trying to bargain with me before he freed me. Wanted me to be his little archangel slave basically or he was going to leave me chained in there forever. That should tell you something.”

“So you’re saying that he’s evil?” Bobby asked as he wondered how many times they were going to have to do this. 

“On the contrary. He’s neither good nor evil. He is nothing. No emotion, no sympathy, no empathy, no moral code, nothing. If it’s easier to kill someone to accomplish whatever he’s trying to do he won’t think twice about it. If it’s easier to cut off his own leg to get out of a trap, he’ll do it without hesitation.”

“So what…we just keep him locked up?” Bobby asked, wondering how long that would be a viable idea. 

“I need to go figure out what the hell happened, where his soul is, why it isn’t with his body, and how to get it back. I need you to keep an eye on him while I’m gone.”

“Well I can tell you at least some of what happened and where I’m guessing his soul is,” Bobby offered. He didn’t really trust the being he’d first met as the trickster, but he had sacrificed himself for the boys and proven himself in the end, so he would make do. And this sounded like something they would need his expertise for. When Gabriel motioned him to continue he did. “Well Sam managed to take control and jump in the hole with Lucifer. We thought he was gone, but I guess now. If I was a bettin man, I’d say his soul’s still in the pit.”

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. That was the last thing they needed. For Sam’s soul to be the one place he couldn’t go. “Anything else?” he asked tiredly. 

“Not really. Cas might know more,” he said with a shrug. “He’s all powered back up now.”

“Is he now? Interesting. That’ll be my next stop then. Just make sure you don’t let him manipulate you. He’ll be pretty good at it,” Gabriel cautioned as he disappeared looking for Cas. 

It took him no time at all to find his little bro. “Hey bro! What’s shakin?” Gabriel quipped getting a confused look from Cas. Half the fun of being around him was those confused looks at the simplest phrases. 

“You’re back. Where have you been?” he asked. 

“Oh just hanging around. Luci’s little torture chamber that is. Right up until I was released by a soulless hunter. Know anything about that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Cas looked guiltily at the ground. “I was able to pull him out before the cage closed, but I didn’t realize that I only had part of him.”

Gabriel’s hands clenched. So Cas was the one behind it then. “Let me get this straight. When you go rescue the righteous man from hell, you make sure to get every last little bit and spend years piecing him back together, but when you rescue Sam you just…what? Yank and disappear and hope for the best? Are you kidding me?”

“There was a lot going on,” Cas tried to defend himself. 

“So you just forget a little SOUL!? The most important thing in creation?!”

“Dean was injured and I needed…”

“Oh shove it up your ass Castiel. Dean could have waited five more minutes for you to secure Sam’s soul. Even if he was gasping his last breaths you would have had time to bring him back, so don’t give me that bullshit.” Gabriel was livid. He had always known that if the seraph had to choose that it would be Dean, but he hadn’t expected such a lopsided choice as this. 

“Regardless. I cannot change it now, and there are more important matters to consider. Heaven is in turmoil.”

“That’s it? Oh well. Oops. On to the next thing while Sam just runs around without his soul that is incidentally being shredded by Lucifer as we speak.”

Cas ignored his outburst. He had already explained that he couldn’t fix it. Speaking more on the matter wouldn’t change that. “What will you do brother? Will you return home?” 

“Will I…” Gabriel sputtered incredulously at Cas. “No. I won’t. I am going to go make a deal with the one being that can enter the cage and clean up YOUR mess. YOU can go worry about heaven since it’s obviously all you care about.” Typical angel. And they wondered why he left. More worried about a little chaos than a missing soul. 

It took him a few days but he finally reappeared back at Bobby’s house, Sam’s soul in tow. It had only been down there for about five years hell time, or it would have been in far worse shape, but he could fix that. At least mostly. He nodded at Bobby through the door, having appeared directly in the panic room, knocked Sam out, and gotten to work. He took his time mending Sam’s soul, pulling out all the dark threads, stitching up all the tears, soothing all the wounds that couldn’t even be described because they had no equivalent that could be perceived by humans. He sat there, haunched over Sam for three days without a break. 

Bobby had peeked in on him often over the course of that three days, but didn’t dare disturb him and then finally he sat back with a heavy sigh and Sam blinked and sat up with a very confused look on his face. “What…um…”

“Long story short, you jumped into the cage with Lucifer, remind me to tell you how stupid that was later by the way, then Cas pulled you out but left your soul behind, so your soulless self decided that an archangel would make a nice pet so released me, I made a deal to get your soul back, fixed it up, and here we are,” Gabriel explained. He would rather the hunter at least have some idea of what was going on before his deal came due. 

“Wait…what kind of deal?” Sam asked worriedly. He couldn’t handle someone else going to hell for him. Even if that someone was Gabriel. Could archangels even sell their souls? Did they even have souls?

Gabriel was just about to open his mouth to explain, when there was another visitor standing there, looking Sam over intently. “You do good work, Gabriel. I can barely see any signs of damage to his soul.”

“No…” Sam said in a strangled whisper. Gabriel didn’t offer his own life for Sam’s soul. He couldn’t have. 

“Relax kiddo. No one’s dying today,” Gabriel assured him, but then, did something that seemed in opposition of that and raised his blade to his throat, dragging a line across it. It didn’t kill him though, he just held out a bottle and blue light fled from his neck into the bottle, and Gabriel stumbled as he handed it over. 

Sam jumped up and caught him, helping him to sit down on the cot. “Gabriel what…?” 

“My grace. I’m human now. My grace for your soul. That was the deal,” Gabriel told him. He hadn’t been at all prepared for the exhaustion that settled over him though. 

“That was most of the deal,” Death said waiting expectantly for something else. 

“Ah yes,” Gabriel said pulling something from his pocket. “And the rings for the time to mend it.” He leveled his gaze at the remaining horseman. “With the caveat that all of them save yours will be destroyed,” he said pointedly. 

“I keep my bargains. They are no longer necessary except as keys to a door that should forever remain closed. They will be destroyed post haste. I thank you for your business,” he said as he disappeared from the room.


	3. Chapter 3

“Gabriel you…you gave up your powers…why?” Sam asked in awe. 

“I couldn’t just let you run around without a soul. Believe me that wasn’t my first offer,” he joked, swaying dangerously. 

“Here,” Sam said jumping up off the cot. “Lie down.” Gabriel did so gratefully. “Do you need anything? Are you…I don’t know…hungry? Thirsty?”

“What I need is for you to stop fussing,” Gabriel said with a chuckle as his eyes drifted closed. “And maybe a little sleep,” he admitted. 

“BOBBY!” Sam called and the old hunter came down the stairs a few minutes later. “You wanna let us out?” he asked. 

Bobby looked at Sam appraisingly and then peeked in at the already unconscious archangel. “I don’t know. How do I know you’re you again?” 

Sam sighed. He could understand Bobby’s reluctance. His memories had been trickling back to him since he’d woken up so he remembered being soulless. He walked over to Gabe and shook him lightly. “Gabe? Sorry. If you can just give Bobby the all clear we can get you to a more comfortable bed.”

“Hmm?” Gabriel said sleepily. “Yeah. We’re good. Soul’s back,” he slurred and Bobby rushed to unlock the door, pulling Sam into a tight hug, which the hunter gratefully returned. 

Sam turned to Gabriel and he was out like a light again and Sam couldn’t get more than a sleepy hum when shaking his shoulder so he just shrugged and lifted him up. Granted he could have just let him sleep on the cot, but given that it was his first time ever sleeping and he had sacrificed everything he had for Sam, he was going to be nice and dare anyone to criticize him for it. “What’s with him. Since when do angels sleep?” Bobby asked gruffly. 

“He’s not an angel anymore,” Sam said looking down at the small man fondly. When Bobby looked at him expectantly obviously wanting an explanation Sam said, “He traded his grace for my soul. He’s human now.”

“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” Bobby said shocked, suddenly looking at the little being with just as much awe and gratitude as Sam was. Once Gabriel was settled in Sam’s old bed, the two hunter’s headed back downstairs. “You think he knows how to be human?” Bobby asked curiously. 

“Not sure. I’d bet he knows more than Cas did, but he’s never really had to deal with the stupid little things that people never think about.”

“So he’ll be around for a while,” Bobby surmised. 

“Will that be a problem?” Sam asked. He’d probably be back on the road before long, but he could go sooner if Bobby didn’t want Gabriel around. 

“Nah. Kid’s proven himself enough. And he doesn’t exactly have powers to make us miserable with anymore.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s gonna make him that much easier to deal with,” Sam said with a chuckle.

“Maybe not, but now I can knock some sense into him,” Bobby said laughing along with him. 

“True. So how’s Dean? Have you heard from him?” Sam asked. “Does he know…you know.”

“I haven’t heard from him since that night, but then it’s only been two weeks so that’s no unusual. He said he was going to Lisa like you wanted and that’s the last I heard. I figured after everything it would be better to get things settled before bringing him into this. Last thing he needed is the whole ‘your brother’s back but not all of him’ speech.”

“Yeah. That makes sense. I don’t blame you there. I can’t decide if I should call him or not,” Sam admitted. 

“Why the hell wouldn’t you?” Bobby asked. 

“Well it’s just…if he’s got a chance to get out, to be happy…” Sam trailed off. 

“And you don’t?” 

“I don’t know, Bobby. I just don’t know where I go from here, what I want, and until I do I don’t know if I want to risk breaking up what he’s got going.”

“Now you listen to me kid and listen good. That life your brother’s living out there. It’s not his first choice. He’s doing it because it was your dying wish. That’s it. And if you think for one minute that he wouldn’t be thrilled as all hell to see you, then I think featherbrain up there put you back together wrong. Now either you call him or I will, but I’ll be damned if I’m keeping this from him any longer.”

Sam’s lips twitched in amusement. That had pretty much been what he wanted anyway. He wanted Dean back and he wanted someone to take the decision out of his hands. That way he wasn’t the one that took everything away from him. The next thing he knew he had a phone being shoved in his hands and he dialed Dean’s most recent number. It was disconnected so he called the emergency line and got a gruff, “What?” from the other end. 

“Dean?” Sam said despite knowing that obviously it was Dean. He hadn’t anticipated how great it would be to hear his voice. He was still trying to process the fact that for part of him it had been two weeks and for part of him it had been five years. 

“S-Sammy?” Dean’s voice broke. “It…it can’t be…”

“Oh come on Dean. How many times have we come back from the dead by now?” Sam said laughing so he wouldn’t cry. 

“How? When?” Dean was incapable of getting more than one word out at a time. 

“It’s kind of a long story,” Sam said. “Let’s just say I’ve only been back in one piece for about an hour.”

“And it took you a whole damn hour to call me?!” Dean protested half-heartedly and partially joking. 

“Yeah, well, like I said. Long story,” Sam said with a sheepish chuckle. 

“Where are you?” Dean asked. 

“Bobby’s,” Sam told him. 

“I’m on my way.”

“Dean!” Sam called before he could hang up. 

“What?”

“Sleep it off first,” Sam told him. 

“Right. Probably a good idea. I’ll be there by tomorrow night. Stay put,” Dean ordered. 

“Where am I gonna go?” Sam rolled his eyes as he hung up. Despite the late hour he wasn’t tired at all having just come off of three days of unconsciousness while Gabriel was fixing his soul. He was, however, starving, so even as Bobby was heading to bed, Sam was raiding his fridge. 

Once he had eaten, Sam found that he was unable to keep his thoughts from straying upstairs to the sleeping former archangel. It suddenly struck him that for someone who’s never slept before, waking up would probably be pretty disorienting. Hell it was disorienting sometimes when you were used to it. He grabbed a book and headed upstairs, stretching out on the other bed and turning the small reading lamp on. At least he could be there when Gabriel woke up. He just wished he could figure the guy out. First he was trying to make friends, then he was killing Dean a hundred times, then he was trying to get them to say yes to Michael and Lucifer, then he was saving them from Lucifer and wanting them to trap him again, and now this…trading his grace, everything he was, for Sam’s soul. None of it made sense. 

The sun had just started to come up when Gabriel snapped awake, sitting up with wide eyes. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re good,” Sam rushed to assure him. “Waking up can be rather jolting if you’re not used to it.”

“Right. Okay. Yeah. That’s gonna take some getting used to.”

“So, I was wondering. How much do you really know about being human?” Sam asked curiously. 

Gabriel laughed. “Oh come on. I’ve been living among humans for thousands of years. I’ll be fine.”

“Well yeah but you can live with dogs and still have no idea how to wag your tail if you end up in a fully functioning dog’s body,” Sam pointed out. 

“Well I happen to have a human body and I assure you it is definitely fully functioning,” he said with a wink. 

Sam just smirked. He had a feeling that Gabriel had no idea. “Oh so you’ve had to piss and shit, and deal with body odor, and bad breath, and shaving, and hygiene, and muscle cramps, and pulled muscles, and joint pain, and a hundred other things that we humans do on a daily basis?” When he finished he was doing his best not to laugh at the gob-smacked look on the new human’s face and he had noticed his discomfort too. “And I’m sure you realize that pressure you feel means you have to piss.” 

Gabriel managed to pull himself together and stuck his nose in the air and said, “Obviously,” as he walked out and headed toward the bathroom. Sam just hoped he could figure out how to work that part himself. It would definitely make for an awkward morning if Sam had to help him.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam just sighed. It looked like Gabriel didn’t want any help, but Sam knew that he needed it, and Sam wanted to be the one to give it. It really was the least he could do. He met Gabriel in the hallway and said, “Let’s go down for breakfast.” 

Sam raised an eyebrow when Gabriel started pulling out ingredients and mixing them expertly. “What? I always liked to cook. It’s relaxing.” 

“Oh. Well. Feel free. None of the rest of us like it much,” Sam told him. “But in return you have to let me help you learn to be human.”

“Sam…” Gabriel said wearily. “I didn’t do this to give you another burden. I’ll figure it out. I’m more resourceful than you seem to give me credit for.”

“It’s not a burden, Gabriel. Jesus. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to live with what you’ve done for me? It would be more of a burden if you didn’t let me help.”

“I don’t need your pity, Sam.”

“It’s not pity, Gabriel. It’s gratitude. It’s thanks. It’s common decency.”

“Yeah well, I don’t need that either,” he said petulantly. 

“And I don’t need pancakes and bacon for breakfast, but I’m apparently getting them anyway,” Sam said pointedly. 

Gabriel could admit that he had a point. He just didn’t want Sam to want to be around him out of obligation or gratitude. He would drop it for now though. He turned back to Sam and said, “Who says you’re getting any?” 

“Because you’re making enough for an army, and now that you’re human you won’t be able to eat nearly that much,” Sam said cheekily, knowing that Gabriel was just teasing him. That did bring up another subject though. “Speaking of, you know you’ll have to start eating healthier now that you’re human.”

Gabriel dropped the spatula. “Oh god. I hadn’t thought of that.” He had such a deer caught in the headlights look that Sam couldn’t help but burst into laughter. All the inconveniences and pain that he had mentioned having to deal with and the thing that sends Gabriel into a panic is eating healthy. 

Sam had a little pity on him. “Well you don’t need to eat totally healthy. Just somewhat healthy as long as you’re willing to take vitamins every day. There’s no telling what kind of shape your immune system is in if you even have one. Don’t want to take any chances.”

“Vitamins?” Gabriel asked. 

“We’ll go shopping after breakfast. There are quite a few things you’ll need,” Sam told him. 

Gabriel was beginning to realize that maybe he would need help. At least if he wanted to do a decent job of being human. It wasn’t like he had nothing to offer though. “Just so you know, I do have money. A lot of it.”

“You do?” Sam asked, not really sure why he was surprised if not for the fact that Gabriel could always just snap up anything he needed and wouldn’t have had to worry about buying things. 

“Yep. Sometimes being able to pay for stuff is rather convenient, and snapping up cash can be murder on an economy. Especially large amounts. Turns out, I have a knack for investments, not to mention interest building since the very first banks were formed, so yeah. I’m loaded.”

Sam wasn’t going to ask how that ‘knack for investments’ came about, but he had to admit that it would come in handy. Gabriel would need pretty much everything and it would be more than a little costly. Especially given the man’s usual tastes. 

Bobby came staggering downstairs just as Gabriel put a plate on the table piled high with pancakes and another filled with bacon. Sam had been bustling around getting everything else out and the table set while they were talking. Bobby did a double take when he saw Gabriel finishing up at the stove. “You can cook? The human way?” 

“Sure thing old man,” Gabriel quipped. 

“He even ‘likes’ to cook,” Sam chimed in. 

Bobby just grunted and shrugged. “Works for me,” he muttered as he sat down and dug in. 

“You got a car we can borrow after breakfast?” Sam asked.

“Sure. Take the Chevelle,” Bobby offered.

Sam decided to just hit a Wal-Mart. Then they could get everything in one place. Sam made for the health and beauty section first for toothbrush and paste, deodorant, razors, shaving cream and all the other incidentals that Gabriel would need, swinging by the pharmacy for vitamins, before heading to the clothing section. Sam was surprised to see that Gabriel had very nice taste in clothes. No lurid colors in sight. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised. He’d never seen Gabriel dress outrageously, but he just seemed like the kind of person who would. 

Sam was glad that Gabriel was a very decisive person and didn’t have to spend hours trying everything on. When they got over there, Gabriel picked pants and a shirts and grabbed a few different sizes, and then made for the changing rooms. Once he knew what sizes he needed, it went very quickly. He ended up with about fifteen different shirts in various styles and about ten pairs of pants, then came the underwear and socks and that he did go for lurid colors. He didn’t think Gabriel grabbed a single pair of boxers that had neutral colors or even one color. Probably the most aesthetically appealing was a pair of bright red shorts with hot pink lip prints. Some of them even glowed in the dark for crying out loud. 

Once their clothes were all sorted, Gabriel asked, “Don’t I need a duffle bag or something and some weapons and first aid stuff and whatever else?” 

“Wait…you’re not…thinking of hunting are you?” Sam asked in shock. 

“Why not? If you’re gonna be hunting and since you’ve insisted that you be able to help me with this human stuff, I’ll obviously be tagging along.”

“Well it’s not like it’s something you can just jump into,” Sam pointed out, surprised that Gabriel would even want to. 

“Oh please. It’s not like I’m some delicate little flower. I was an archangel you know. The human limitations might take some getting used to, but I could probably still kick your ass. Not to mention I’ve forgotten more lore than you’ve ever known.”

Sam laughed at the idea of Gabriel kicking his ass, but that was okay. He could put his money where his mouth was later. He would go ahead and get him kitted out with everything but the weapons. It’s not like any of them could legally buy weapons anyway and there were so many stash houses with weapons laying around that they’d never need to worry about it. They got Gabriel a large duffel bag like Sam and Dean carried, and then headed back to the pharmacy and grabbed everything that a good hunter’s emergency kit would need, including needles and dental floss. 

By the time they got back it was nearing lunch time, so they just dropped all their stuff in the rooms and Gabriel went to get started on lunch. It looked like Bobby had cleaned up from breakfast. Gabriel took a quick inventory and realized they should have done some grocery shopping while they were out. It looked like they were going to be stuck with plebian food. He pulled out some ground beef and frozen French fries that he couldn’t help but sneer at. At least the spice cabinet was well stocked, and he cooked the best burgers any of them had ever eaten. 

Sam cleaned up after lunch and then headed upstairs to help Gabriel finish putting his stuff up, which basically meant teaching him the most efficient way to pack his bag. Gabriel now had more clothes than he and Dean did, but he was about half their size, so it balanced out. That done, Sam looked at Gabriel with a smirk. “Now what was that about being able to kick my ass?” he asked crossing his arms. 

“Oh you wanna go Samsquatch?” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “Let’s go.” They headed outside and found an open area and they circled each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Gabriel struck first, a kick to the side of Sam’s knee as he darted behind the hunter and took the other knee out from under him completely, and a kick to the center of his back left the hunter sprawled on the ground. Sam quickly rolled to his back and looked up in shock at the preening ex-archangel. 

“What the hell was that?” he asked in awe. 

“I told you I was an archangel. Expert combat skills were part of the whole job description. I’m pretty rusty and human speed is pretty slow, but I’m good enough to take you on still.”

“Yeah. Well. You just caught me off guard. Let’s go again,” Sam said. He wouldn’t go easy on the little man this time. He threw a few blows, hitting nothing but air, even as he was struck in the stomach with a fist and then an open palm right to the sternum. Surprisingly Sam’s next blow connected right to Gabriel’s cheekbone and he spun and fell to one knee. 

“Shit! You okay?” Sam asked worriedly. He’d stopped trying to pull his punches once he realized he wasn’t going to connect in order to get more speed and he knew what kind of force he could pack. 

Gabriel got to his feet. “I’m good. That was my fault. I’m so used to that move sending my opponent flying backwards. 

Regardless of Gabriel’s words, Sam could already see the swelling starting and the bruise starting to form. “Come on. Let’s go get some ice on that before it swells too much.”

“I’ll be fine,” Gabriel protested. 

“I’m sure,” Sam rolled his eyes. “But trust me when I say, it’s better to take care of it now than worry about it later.”


	5. Chapter 5

Upon seeing that Bobby had steaks he changed his mind about the ice and slapped a steak on Gabriel’s eye and pulled out three more steaks. “Feel up to making steak for dinner?” he asked with a chuckle. 

“Sure. Why not,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. 

“Good. The one on you is yours though,” Sam joked. 

“What’s wrong Samsquatch? Afraid of catching cooties?”

“From you? Definitely,” the hunter teased and dodged the foot headed towards him. 

“Four?” Gabriel asked curiously.

“Dean will probably be here by dinner or soon after,” Sam told him. 

“Oh joy,” Gabriel deadpanned. 

“Hey he warmed up to you just like I did after you sacrificed yourself for us. Can’t promise he’ll be thrilled, but he won’t try to kill you or anything,” Sam assured him. He could see the nervousness behind the former archangel’s bravado and imagined that Gabriel was feeling exceptionally vulnerable right now. That’s when it struck Sam just how fragile Gabriel was now. A stray bullet, an errant blade, a well-placed blow, and he would be dead. A wave of nausea washed over the hunter and he held onto the counter for support. There was a reason that he had tried not to think about this.

The blows just kept coming though. Gabriel was going to die. He was mortal now. The being that had been alive longer than time, and should have been alive long past the end of it, was going to die. In just a few decades. He would get old, suffer from infirmities, and die. And he had signed up for it willingly. For Sam. It was his fault that the archangel Gabriel was going to die. Every day brought him closer to death. Was Gabriel even prepared? Had he even thought all this through? Had he realized everything that Sam was now realizing? Jesus! Gabriel may as well have traded his life for Sam’s. He got a little more than ten years, barring any accidents, but it was still the same thing. It all came crashing down on Sam at once and the hunter slid down the counter to sit on the floor, managing to make it look almost intentional. Or it may have if there weren’t perfectly good chairs ten feet away anyway. 

Gabriel’s steak was discarded on the table and he was on his knees next to Sam a heartbeat later. “Sam? You okay?” he asked worriedly. He hadn’t been able to block the memories of hell, and he worried that the hunter was lost in a flashback or something. 

“You’re dying,” he said emotionlessly looking at Gabriel with wide eyes. He was in shock.”

“Nonsense. I’m fine. It’s just a little bruise,” Gabriel rolled his eyes assuming that Sam was talking about the punch he took.”

“No. I mean…every day you’re dying. You’ll get old and infirm and die,” Sam said. 

“Yes. I AM aware how mortality works, Sam,” he told the hunter. He had no idea where this was coming from or why it was hitting the hunter now or so hard. 

“You sacrificed your life for me,” Sam said. 

“Nah. I still got plenty of time,” Gabriel lied. It may be plenty of time as far as humans were concerned, but for him it was the blink of an eye. He doubted Sam would pick up that distinction though. 

“You sacrificed possibly billions of years or more of your life for me,” Sam said again pointing out how such a sacrifice from an archangel was far more than that of any human could be. 

Gabriel sighed. Looked like it was time for the guilt part to kick in. “Listen Sam. A life…no matter how long it may be…for a soul is more than a fair trade. A life will always end someday. Even an archangel’s, but a soul…a soul is eternal. Your soul was supposed to be in heaven. Leaving it in hell was a travesty. Seeing it be turned black and evil would be an abomination. A life for a soul is always a good trade and I don’t regret it. You shouldn’t either.”

The next thing Gabriel knew Sam had him wrapped in a tight, almost bruising hug. He could feel the tears falling on his shoulder and he lifted his hand soothingly to the hunter’s head while the other rubbed his back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. I’m sorry,” Sam mumbled into Gabriel’s shoulder. 

“Shh. It’s okay Sam. It’s not your fault. You were played by forces far more powerful and knowledgeable than you could ever be. You did amazing, kid. You did the impossible. Do you have any idea how incredible that was? YOU foiled destiny itself. YOU derailed GOD’s plan. I tried to do it, but I failed. You didn’t. Don’t ever think you didn’t do enough. It was MY choice to save you. It was my HONOR to save you, Sam. Don’t be sorry.”

Bobby had been coming in to get a beer but stopped short in the doorway as he heard Gabriel talking and saw the way they were sitting on the floor. When he heard Gabriel’s speech he swallowed around the lump in his throat and walked away. A beer could wait. It was about time someone told that kid how great he was. Someone that he might actually listen to anyway, since obviously that wasn’t him or Dean.

Sam had no words with which to respond to Gabriel and just clung tighter. Gabriel had expected as much. It would take time for his words to sink in. It would take time for them to begin to eat away at the ever-present guilt that pervaded the hunter’s psyche. He wrapped his hand in Sam’s hair and pressed his lips to the top of the hunter’s head. “I got you Sammy. It’s okay. It’s all okay,” he whispered as Sam shook with the force of his sobs. Gabriel had known this was coming. Sam had been taking everything far too well since he’d woken up. He was due for a breakdown. Gabriel hadn’t expected the first breakdown to be over him, but at least he was feeling something again. It meant that his soul was fusing back with him correctly. 

The sound of a ringing phone and Bobby’s gruff voice answering it brought Sam back to reality. The last thing he wanted was for Bobby to find him like this. He sniffled a few times as he pulled back and wiped his face. “Gabriel, I’m…”

“Uh-uh. Don’t even say it. It’s all good,” Gabriel told him putting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze as he rolled back to his feet. Or tried at least, because then he just hit the ground again clutching his leg. “Oh son of a bitch! I think my leg is broken. Shit! Shitshitshit!” he cried out. 

Now, Gabriel was no stranger to pain. He had barely flinched when Sam nearly broke his cheekbone after all, but he had known what was going on. It was expected. There was something about not knowing what was going on that brought fear into it which fed the pain and in turn fed the fear, creating a nice little feedback loop that Gabriel was now caught in. 

It was Sam’s turn to help Gabriel. He knew Gabriel’s leg wasn’t broken. Nothing had happened that could break it, barring some sort of spell of course which was unlikely. He suspected it was just a cramp, as he knelt next to Gabriel this time and pushed the former archangel’s hands out of the way and started pressing on his calf muscle. He was right. “It’s just a muscle cramp. You’ll be okay,” Sam said as he worked on massaging it out. “That happens, especially when you stay in an awkward position for too long. Sor…”

“Don’t even think about it,” Gabriel interrupted through gritted teeth. He was tempted to get a Taser and start tasing the hunter every time that word came out of his mouth. He forced himself to pay attention to what Sam was doing to his leg that was easing the pain and made a mental note of what a muscle cramp felt like for future reference. Once he thought he had it figured out he gently pushed Sam’s hands away and took over himself and he could feel the difference in the muscle. It felt like a rock and it was a few more minutes before he was able to flex his leg again and managed to get to his feet with the help of Sam’s outstretched hand. “I’m gonna go walk it off. I’ll be back in a bit,” Gabriel told him as he headed out the door. 

Once Gabriel made it around the back of the house, it was like he just deflated as he leaned back against the house and wrapped his arms around his stomach and doubled over, almost like he was trying to hold himself together as the tears came pouring down his face and he gasped for breath. He’d meant everything he’d said to Sam. He really did. But he didn’t know if he could do this. It was too much. He hadn’t realized how complicated and painful and uncomfortable it was to be human and he felt like he was drowning in it.


	6. Chapter 6

Gabriel wasn’t sure how long he had been out there before he heard Sam’s voice. “Gabriel? You out here?” He quickly pulled himself together, wiped his eyes and straightened himself up as much as he could before making his way back to the front of the house just in time for Sam to call for him again, rather nervously this time. 

“Unclench Samsquatch. I’m right here. Was just taking a walk,” he quipped cheerfully. 

“And you couldn’t have answered me the first time I called?” Sam said only slightly annoyed. Even Dean and Bobby knew to answer when they were called lest someone assume the worst. 

“I could have sure, but yelling across the property is so undignified,” he joked as he headed inside and made for the bathroom before anyone could notice his puffy eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was pile more undeserved guilt on Sam. 

“Yeah…well…next time just say something, so I know you’re not lying unconscious somewhere under a car or something,” Sam grumbled following him in. 

Gabriel could admit that some of those cars were perched rather haphazardly on top of each other, so agreed with a lazy, “Yeah, sure.” He would only argue about it if he noticed they didn’t hold each other to the same standard, and wouldn’t be surprised if they did. He didn’t particularly enjoy being as vulnerable as he was now obviously, but he would be damned if he would let the hunter wrap him in a nice protective bubble. He would save the argument for when it was needed though. No use borrowing trouble. 

Once he had cleaned himself up and left no signs whatsoever of his little breakdown, he headed back to the kitchen to start dinner. He was glad to see that there were plenty of potatoes so he picked the largest eight, wrapped them and set them in the oven. He would start the steaks a little later so they weren’t finished too soon. No sooner than he had finished that, then he found himself pushed back into the chair he had vacated earlier and had the steak slapped back on his eye. 

Gabriel sighed. He was pretty sure the damage had already been done, and he was also sure that was the main reason Sam hadn’t noticed his breakdown, because his eye was already swollen and the yellowish green discoloration was spreading around it. He was sure that it would be dark purple by the time he went to bed even. He didn’t see the point of trying to prevent it now, but when he said so, Sam just huffed at him. “It’ll still decrease the swelling some and speed up the healing, so just deal with it for another twenty minutes okay?”

“Yes, mom,” Gabriel teased. 

It was about ten minutes later before Dean came barreling in the door and pulled Sam into a huge hug, and Sam too held onto his brother for dear life. It wasn’t until they finally broke apart that Dean noticed the other occupant of the room and looked back at Sam. “What’s the feather duster doing here? And why is he wasting perfectly good steak?” he asked narrowing his eyes at said ‘feather duster’. 

“Not a feather duster anymore Deano. Traded my wings for Sammy’s soul,” Gabriel quipped nonchalantly. He knew that hiding it would be impossible so he wanted to control the outflow of the information and hopefully make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal. He should have known better than to think he could get away with it. 

“He traded more than just his wings,” Sam said tossing a bitchface at the former archangel. “He traded his immortality and his powers too. He’s human now.”

“Huh?” Dean asked dumbfounded looking between Gabriel and Sam who were staring each other down, neither liking the other’s version of events. 

“Cliffs notes version: Cassie yanked Sam out of the cage but was too distracted to bother doing it right so Sam was running around without a soul, thought a half-broken archangel would make a good pet, and released me from Lucifer’s little house of horrors, just for me to double-cross him and lock him up downstairs while I found someone that could retrieve his soul, convinced him to get it back, and voila! One Sam back in perfect working condition.”

Sam rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly at Gabriel’s description of wanting him for a pet. “Yeah, sorry about that whole pet thing.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I swear to god, Sam Winchester, if I have to go get a taser gun to shoot you with every time you start apologizing for crap you shouldn’t be, I’ll do it.”

Dean couldn’t help but snicker at that. It was about time someone said it. Not that he would ever let Gabriel actually do it, but still. “So you double-crossed him?” Dean asked wanting a little more to that story first. Specifically, the reasoning behind it. He didn’t want Gabriel around if he was going to start thinking that was an appropriate way of doing things. 

“Well yeah. You can’t reason with someone without a soul and they don’t have emotions to appeal to, so it was either agree to his terms or stay locked up there forever. I agreed and as soon as I was free and my powers were back I brought him here, told Bobby what was going on, and set out in search of his soul.” 

“And who could have gotten it back if you couldn’t?” Dean asked curiously. 

“The curator of souls of course. Death,” he explained. 

“And do you…um…remember…” Dean asked Sam hesitantly. 

“Yeah, mostly. It seems…I don’t know…disconnected though,” Sam told him. 

“Don’t get used to that,” Gabriel chimed in. “Those memories will become more prominent as your soul fuses more completely back with you. Right now they’re there, but they probably feel like they happened to someone else, because your soul wasn’t with you when it happened. Some of them may be fragmented from where I stitched your soul back together, but they will become like any other memories soon enough.”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean you stitched his soul back together? And how could you do that without your powers?” Dean asked. 

“His soul was flayed alive,” Gabriel said bluntly. “Much like yours was when Cassie pulled you out. And just like he did for you, I took a little time to do some mending before I shoved it back in him…”

“Three days,” Bobby said from the doorway. 

“Huh?” Dean said looking back at him. 

“Damn kid sat down there for three days, no breaks or nothin’, fixing Sammy’s soul,” the old hunter said ignoring the glare from Gabriel. He was jumping on Sam’s bandwagon and making sure that the former archangel got full credit for what he’d done, though it was as much to keep the peace in his house between Gabriel and Dean as it was anything else. 

“What? It’s a little more complicated than putting together a jigsaw puzzle you know,” Gabriel said shrugging it off. “And I did have my powers still. There was a sort of side deal that allowed me to keep them long enough to fix him up.”

“And what was the side deal?” Dean asked curiously. 

Gabriel looked at him a little nervously. He wasn’t sure how he would take this part. “Death got to personally destroy the horsemen’s rings, other than his own.”

“You mean we went into the trunk of my car and stole the rings?” Dean asked trying to decide if he should be pissed or not. “And how do you know he’ll destroy them and not just use them to make new horsemen or something?”

“Yes I did. And Death doesn’t want them to exist any more than the rest of us do. He’s just a control freak who likes to make sure the job is done right, which usually means doing it himself.”

“He did seem eager to destroy them,” Sam chimed in. 

Dean narrowed his eyes at Gabriel and said, “Steal something from my car again, I’ll make sure you regret it.” He’d let this one go, but he would be damned if he didn’t make it clear that it was a one-time thing. 

“You got it, Deano,” Gabriel said crossing his heart with his finger. 

“So what’s with the steak?” Dean went back to his second original question.

“Yes, can I please take it off now?” he asked Sam in what was decidedly not a whine.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sam said and Dean’s eyes widened slightly at the black eye. 

“So who do I need to thank for punching him out?” he said smugly. 

“It was an accident,” Sam said guiltily and turned to Gabriel again. “I’m…OW!” he was cut off by a foot in his shin. 

“It’s not a taser, but it’ll do,” Gabriel said with a smirk and Dean couldn’t help but laugh.


	7. Chapter 7

After dinner, where they once again had to explain Gabriel’s cooking skills to a clueless Dean, the debate began about who would be sleeping where. The problem was that, other than Bobby’s bed, there were only two other beds upstairs that Sam and Dean usually slept in so someone was sleeping on the couch. Gabriel and Sam were both arguing that they should be the one to do so, Gabriel claiming that as the guest he had the least claim to any of the beds, Sam claiming that as the guest, it would be rude to make him sleep on the couch. Finally, Dean had enough. “I’ll sleep on the damn couch. Jesus.”

Gabriel didn’t really care if Dean was uncomfortable and he did fit on the couch better than Sam did, so he accepted that. Sam too, accepted it. He had been worried about the fact that Gabriel still wasn’t used to sleeping and so wanted him to be comfortable, and if possible, not alone. “We can go buy another bed tomorrow,” Gabriel suggested. 

“With what money?” Dean asked rolling his eyes. 

“Oh yeah, Gabriel’s loaded,” Sam told his brother waiting for his reaction. 

Sam was disappointed though as Dean just grumbled, “Should’ve known.”

Sam though, having not slept the night before, was really getting tired so excused himself to bed, leaving Dean and Gabriel alone, since Bobby was outside puttering around with some cars before he lost the light. 

As soon as Dean was sure his brother was out of earshot, he rounded on the former archangel. “Okay, what’s your angle here Gabriel? What are you after?” he asked suspiciously. 

“I’m not after anything,” Gabriel said annoyed. 

“Why are you still here then? Okay so you’re human now, but if you’re rich, you can go anywhere you want.”

“I was planning on it originally, but then Sam realized that I didn’t really know much about being human and insisted I stay. I told him I’d figure it out, but you know how he is once he gets his mind set on something,” Gabriel said with a shrug, making it clear that he wasn’t trying to intrude on their lives. 

“So you don’t want to be here?” Dean asked. 

“I didn’t say that,” Gabriel said with a frown. “I’m glad to be here. I consider Sam a friend, but if he didn’t want me around I wouldn’t be. That’s all I meant.”

“Okay, so we’re back to the why? When you could be holed up in fancy resorts with beautiful women, why would you want to be here?”

“I’ve done far more than my share of the fancy resorts and beautiful women…and men. That was when I had all the time in the world to waste. It’s different now. I only have a few decades left, and that’s if I can avoid becoming werewolf chow or vamp bait or whatever, and I want to do something real with it.”

“Wait…you can’t mean…” Dean didn’t miss the references to werewolves and vampires, “You plan to be a hunter?” 

“Am I just supposed to go live a normal life knowing that I could be making a difference?” Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“But…I just…you?...a hunter?” Dean was laughing. 

“Why do you people keep assuming I’m some delicate little flower. I was an archangel remember. We strike fear in the hearts of our enemies for a reason,” Gabriel said annoyed. 

“Well yeah, sure, but that’s with powers. It’s a little different without them,” Dean sad still laughing at the absurdity of the thought. 

Gabriel could handle Sam’s quiet disbelief, but Dean’s complete dismissal just pissed him off. “Okay, you know what? Let’s go,” he snapped. 

“You don’t seriously want me to fight you?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“Damn right I do. I’ve even still got my blade if you’ve got yours,” he taunted. 

“I don’t want to hear any whining when you get hurt,” Dean warned. 

“You won’t,” Gabriel said coldly. 

Dean just shrugged and grabbed his angel blade and followed the former archangel outside where the sun was just starting to set. They squared off in the Sam place that Gabriel and Sam had earlier, drawing Bobby’s attention who just leaned against the side of the car he’d been working on and watched. Unlike Dean, he wasn’t going to underestimate the lithe little man, and thought there was a good chance this would be something to see. 

Bobby had been right if you considered something to see being Dean getting his ass kicked. After a few dozen blows in under thirty seconds Dean’s blade was flying and he was on his knees with Gabriel behind him, blade at his throat. Gabriel leaned down and said rather menacingly, “I could have ended it after the first blow if I hadn’t minded taking your whole hand off.”

Dean tapped his arm in the universal ‘let me go’ signal and Gabriel did so. “Okay fine. So you have an advantage with a blade,” he snapped. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes and tossed his blade. “Fine. Unarmed then.” Dean charged at him and Gabriel just sidestepped and tripped him. Dean quickly rolled back to his feet and tried again. When he swung at Gabriel, the smaller man ducked under the blow and spun behind Dean getting in a kidney shot and then waiting with a smug grin on his face for the hunter’s next move. Dean narrowed his eyes and tried to fake Gabriel out with a punch, but kicked instead and he honestly couldn’t say how the hell he ended up face-planted in the ground, but he was pretty sure there had been an elbow to the back of his neck. “Are you done yet?” Gabriel asked. 

Dean flipped to his back and looked at him like he had never seen him before. Gabriel had already earned his gratitude for what he’d done for Sam, and now he had earned Dean’s respect, but that didn’t mean he was done. “Arm-wrestling,” he said getting to his feet and heading towards the house.

Gabriel rolled his eyes again, following him. “Please. I’m a master of speed and gra…finesse. Not brute strength.”

Dean didn’t react to Gabriel’s aborted word choice, but made mental note of it. He would mention it to Sam. He was much better at that whole thing than Dean was. “Well most of the crap we face is much stronger than humans, so strength is rather necessary so let’s see what you got pipsqueak.”

“If they are always going to be stronger than strength won’t matter,” Gabriel pointed out, knowing that he was going to lose this one. 

“Which is why we bridge the gap as much as we can. So come on,” Dean said flexing his arm from where he was now sitting at the table. 

Gabriel could see he wasn’t going to get out of it so he just sighed and sat down, putting his hand in Dean’s. He had known he would lose, but he wasn’t quite expecting just how spectacularly he would lose. He massaged his arm frustrated as he looked at Dean waiting for him to start crowing about his victory, but he didn’t. He just said, “Okay so we need to work on your strength a little. We’ll see how you are with a gun tomorrow, and get you all kitted up.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes curiously at the hunter. That was it? No rubbing it in. No hissy fit about him sticking around. No arguments about his fitness for the job. All he had to do was kick his ass and that was it? “Okay…” he said warily still waiting for the punch line. 

“So now that I’ve seen you fight, I’m really curious. How’d you end up with the shiner?” 

Gabriel huffed. “Sam had the same reaction you did, so we were doing the same thing, except for a minute I forgot I was human and pulled an angel move and when Sam didn’t go flying I was caught off guard and left myself wide open.” 

Dean snorted a laugh. “Nice.”

“Anyway, this whole human thing is exhausting. I’m gonna head up to bed,” Gabriel said doing just that, stripping down to his boxers and undershirt and climbing into bed, making sure to be facing away from Sam when the tears started to fall, just in case the hunter woke up. He pulled his knees tightly to his chest, holding his body as rigid as possibly to keep from shaking with his sobs. He just felt so helpless and weak and just a little bit terrified. The idea that he could just be sitting somewhere without a care in the world and be suddenly killed by any of a hundred freak events was suffocating. He never realized how little he worried about such things back when there was only one thing in existence that could kill him, and now everything could. He could almost feel the cells in his body marching towards their slow death. He was so…exposed. He had to turn and bite his pillow more than once to keep from screaming as he fell apart.


	8. Chapter 8

Gabriel had apparently fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew he was woken by whimpers from the bed next to him. He wiped the dried tear tracks off his face and went over to sit on the side of Sam’s bed and started running a hand through his hair to try and calm him. Once the hunter relaxed again and seemed to be sleeping peacefully, Gabriel headed back to his own bed. That process repeated itself one more time a few hours later. Gabriel guessed the memories of hell were working their way forward. 

The next time Gabriel woke up, the sunlight was peeking in the window, and Gabriel forced down his panic. He was sure there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he couldn’t feel his arm. He forced himself to breathe as he tried to wait until Sam woke up, but he couldn’t take it for long and Sam was starting to stir anyway. “Sam,” he called out, causing the hunter to start and turn to look at him. “Something’s wrong. I can’t..can’t feel my arm.”

Sam could tell that Gabriel was trying to force calm and he was about three seconds from panic so he rushed to reassure him. “It’s okay. That happens. I’m guessing it’s the one you’re lying on?” He got a nod from Gabriel and Sam came over and helped Gabriel roll off of it, seeing the wince on the former archangel’s face. “It’s just asleep. That happens when you sleep the wrong way,” Sam explained as he started at the fingers and started massaging his way up. 

“There’s a wrong way to sleep?” Gabriel asked wearily. This was getting ridiculous. 

Sam just gave a chuckle that he hoped would set Gabriel at ease. “Yeah, but most issues from sleeping wrong are easy to handle so it’s not that big of a deal.”

Gabriel started squirming uncomfortably, “It feels…um…”

“Yeah. That’s normal. It’ll feel all tingly and…heavy I guess?” he wasn’t sure how better to describe it. “And it’ll probably hurt a bit too as the feeling comes back.” Once Gabriel was back to using his arm normally, Sam said, “Okay good. Time to show you how to brush your teeth and shave and shower and all that fun stuff.”

They took turns using the toilet and then Sam demonstrated and Gabriel followed along as they brushed their teeth. They hit a little snag on the shaving though as Gabriel kept either cutting himself or not pressing hard enough. Sam told him to wait and quickly finished himself and then took Gabriel’s razor and tilted his head up as he started shaving him. “I’ll do it for you this time so you can get a feel for the right amount of pressure and angles. You’ll probably still cut yourself a bit for a while as you get the hang of it, but it won’t be so bad,” Sam explained as he drew the razor slowly across the skin so that Gabriel could feel it better. He pointed out the differences in angles over the jaw and showed him how to hold his mouth for the upper lip and chin. 

Gabriel kept an unaffected look on his face the whole time as he felt the suffocating helplessness creeping up on him again. Once they were done, Sam showed him how to adjust the water in the shower and gave a brief explanation of how to use the soap and shampoo and left him to it. As soon as the door closed behind Sam, Gabriel dropped the act and managed to strip off his clothes and get in the shower that Sam had set up for him before completely breaking down, knowing that the water would muffle the sound. Gabriel ended up sitting on the shower floor, hugging his knees to his chest heaving gasping sobs as the pressure threated to crush him.

Sam took a shower in the downstairs bathroom, knowing that Bobby preferred his showers at night and Dean was still sleeping so he could go next. After Dean’s shower, Gabriel still wasn’t down yet, and they had to be nearly out of hot water by now so Sam climbed the stairs. He had no issues with Gabriel taking his time for his first shower, especially since no one else was waiting, but he wanted to make sure he was alright. He knocked on the door. “Gabriel you good in there?” he called out. 

Gabriel took a second to collect himself enough to be able to say in as close to a normal voice as he could manage. “Yeah. Sorry. Be right out.”

“Take your time,” Sam called back. “I’m headed out for breakfast. You want anything?” 

“Surprise me,” he heard Gabriel say and he headed back downstairs, only to be stopped by Dean. 

“There’s something I wanted to mention to you. It’s probably nothing, but you’re much better at all the touchy feely crap so you’d know better than me,” Dean started.

“Okay. What’s up?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Well last night, Gabriel and I were talking and when he started to say the word grace he kind of choked on it and changed words quickly. I figured it might mean he’s not dealing with all this as well as he’s letting on.”

“I’ll see what I can get out of him. Thanks, Dean. I appreciate you letting me know,” Sam said earnestly. He needed to see this for himself. 

When Gabriel didn’t hear anything else from Sam, he breathed out a sigh of relief as he started trying to get himself together. The water was getting cold anyway and he hadn’t managed to get any washing done, but oh well. Maybe he’d do better tomorrow. It didn’t take him long to figure out the deodorant thing and he got dressed and headed downstairs, smirk placed firmly on his face. 

As he plopped on the couch next to Dean, who was already watching television, the hunter looked at him and said suggestively, “That was a long shower.”

Gabriel’s smirk just widened as he said, “Lots of new things to get used to,” just as suggestively and added a little eyebrow wiggle. Better that the hunter thought that, then know that Gabriel was up there having a childish little fit. It didn’t matter to him one bit whether Dean thought he was up there rubbing one out or not. 

Dean let out a barking laugh as he turned back to the television. It was only another ten minutes before Sam got back with food and started dishing it out, handing Gabriel a container of chocolate chip pancakes making the former archangel light up with glee as he dug in. “We still going bed shopping after breakfast?” Sam asked. 

“Nah. I don’t see much point,” Dean said. “It’s not like we’re gonna stay here forever and I generally end up crashing on the couch when we’re here anyway. Besides, I think our time would be better served getting the pipsqueak up to par on firearms if he’s gonna be hunting with us.”

Sam blinked in shock for a moment, looking from Dean to Gabriel and back to Dean. When the hell had that been decided and why on god’s green earth was Dean just accepting it so easily? That must have been one hell of a talk they had last night. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sam said. 

“Why not?” Dean asked, amazed that he was about to argue for Gabriel’s inclusion. “He can fight, he probably knows more lore than any of us, he’s good with people…we just need to teach him guns, maybe work up the muscles a little bit, but he’s practically a ready-made hunter.”

“One who is suddenly much more breakable than he’s used to being. He’s human now. He can’t just go throwing himself at monsters and shit,” Sam said pointedly. 

“HE is sitting right here,” Gabriel said annoyed. “And I am only going to say this once. I do not need your protection. I am not some damsel in distress, and I will not let you put me in some little safety bubble. What I do with my life is my choice and mine alone and you don’t get to make it for me. If you don’t want me to hunt with you, fine. I’ll go off on my own, but you will not tell me that I can’t hunt at all. Understood?”

Dean’s lips twitched in amusement. Leave it to Sam to try and coddle an ex-archangel. Even he knew that wouldn’t go well. Dean felt the need to add his two cents worth here too. “Besides, we’re human and we throw ourselves at monsters and shit. He’s no more breakable than we are.” 

Sam knew that he had lost. Not only were they ganging up on him, but they were right. It didn’t make him like it, but he didn’t really have much of a choice. “Okay fine. But I teach him to shoot,” Sam said. 

That decided, they broke out the trunk of guns and carried it out to the edge of the woods. “So have you ever shot a gun at all?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Nope. Never had much reason to,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“Okay. No problem. Let’s start with handguns,” Sam said carefully choosing the one he thought would work best for Gabriel. It was smaller than the ones he and Dean used, but they had freakishly large hands and could handle the kick. He made sure the safety was on and positioned Gabriel’s hands around it. “Don’t touch the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, whether the safety is on or not,” he advised as he turned his attention to Gabriel’s stance. He showed him the correct stance and once Gabriel copied him, Sam did some fine-tuning. 

He nudged Gabriel’s foot with his getting it at the right angle. Put his hand on his shoulder to drop it slightly, reached around to straighten his arm and then put his hands on Gabriel’s hips to rotate them just a little bit. Once he was satisfied he said, “Okay so now just look down the sight, aim, exhale and squeeze the trigger. It’s gonna kick back on you, so be prepared.”

Gabriel popped the safety off and did as Sam told him to, and despite his best attempts he wasn’t at all prepared for the way the gun jumped up in his hand. Apparently Sam either expected that or had very fast reflexes, because he caught Gabriel’s wrist before it got too high and Gabriel gave a sheepish half-smile and a shrug. 

“That’s okay. It takes a few tries to get used to it and figure out how to compensate. I figure you’ll probably make it through that whole clip before you ever hit the target at all,” Sam said with a chuckle.


	9. Chapter 9

After a morning of practice, Gabriel was what could be called a decent shot, in a few different stances. Sam assured him that for only a few hours practice it was really good, and they headed back to the house for lunch, leaving the weapons there since they planned to come back after they ate and start on the shotguns. Sam had been trying to think of a way to work the word grace into the conversation, and finally managed to think of one. As they headed back out, Sam said, “Okay so shotguns are a lot different than handguns. They don’t have nearly as much grace,” he said nonchalantly and if he hadn’t been looking for it he probably wouldn’t have noticed Gabriel’s flinch and the brief hitch of breath. 

“Before we start on that though, I was hoping we could talk a little bit, you know…away from everyone else.”

“Sure thing Samsquatch. What’s up?” Gabriel asked easily. 

“Well I just wondered how you’re holding up with this whole newly human thing. I mean, it can’t be easy for you.”

“It’s not so bad. I mean, like you said, there’s a lot to get used to and to remember, but I’m good,” he lied easily. 

“Are you sure? Because if you’re not, you can tell me you know. You shouldn’t have to handle it alone,” Sam prompted not really buying the party line. 

“I’m sure Sammich. I got this. Really,” Gabriel tried to assure him, before switching the focus back to Sam. “What about you? I mean, hell should be getting clearer for you now, and that’s a lot to deal with.”

Sam sighed at the blatant deflection and realized that he was never going to get Gabriel to open up. If there was anything to open up about. Maybe he really was handling it okay and his issues with the word grace were just an aberration. “I’m okay. Yeah, they’re getting clearer, but they’re not overwhelming or anything.” Like he would burden Gabriel with it if they were. He’d done more than enough already. Before Gabriel could challenge him on that assertion he said, “So back to the shotgun. It’s going to kick a lot more…” 

After a brief tutorial with the shotgun, he let Gabriel loose to practice. After a few hours of that, Sam called it for the day. They’d had enough for one day, and Gabriel was at least getting close to all his targets and with salt rounds that was usually good enough. They’d have plenty of time for more practice another day. 

After dinner, which Gabriel cooked of course, Sam started teaching him how to break down and clean the guns. That went much easier and it wasn’t long before Gabriel had that part down pat and could disassemble and reassemble all their guns in near record time, so they spent the rest of the evening watching television with Dean and Bobby. 

Gabriel was getting tired, but he wasn’t about to go to bed first. Not after last night. Lying in bed with nothing to focus on but the feeling of mortality rushing through him made it very easy to fall apart and he couldn’t risk Sam coming in and seeing him like that, so he forced himself to stay up, glad that Sam was usually the first to go to bed. Gabriel waited another half hour after Sam went up before he went to bed himself and sure enough, just like last night, he was soon shaking with silent sobs. Due to his exhaustion it didn’t take him nearly as long to fall asleep at least. 

A few hours later he was woken by, not just whimpers, full out cries coming from the bed next to his. He climbed out of bed and sat on the edge of Sam’s running a hand through his hair again like he had the previous night to calm him down. This time though, the hunter started awake and looked at Gabriel with fear in his eyes. “Shh. It’s okay Sam. It was just a dream,” Gabriel soothed as he continued running his hand through Sam’s hair. He wasn’t prepared for the arms to go around his waist and the tears to start. 

He smiled fondly down at the hunter, and shifted so that he was leaning back against the headboard, Sam’s head at the top of his stomach. “It’s okay Sam. I’ve got you. You wanna talk about it?” Sam shook his head frantically. “Okay. That’s okay. You don’t have to,” he said as he continued playing with Sam’s hair as the hunter cried. 

“M’Sorry,” Sam murmured into Gabriel’s stomach after a good while. 

The former archangel rolled his eyes and flicked the hunter’s nose. “What did I say about apologizing for stupid stuff?” 

Sam managed a watery chuckle, but didn’t release his grip at all. “Didn’t mean to wake you up,” he said sadly. 

“I’d rather you did than try to deal with it on your own,” Gabriel told him. 

“Why?” Sam asked relaxing his grip. He still couldn’t figure out why Gabriel cared. 

“It doesn’t matter. You should get some more sleep,” Gabriel told him as he started to get up. 

“Stay,” Sam asked hopefully and Gabriel hesitated. The bed wasn’t exactly made for two people, but if it helped Sam sleep without nightmares. In the time it took him to consider it, Sam had apparently realized what he’d asked and said, “Never mind. It’s okay. You don’t have to,” as he let Gabriel go. 

“I don’t mind, Sam,” Gabriel told him softly. “Do you want me to stay?” When he got a tentative nod from the hunter, he just pulled back the covers and climbed in and then Sam was attaching to his waist again, head on his chest this time and they were both quickly asleep. 

Gabriel woke the next morning surprised to find that he wasn’t alone before the memories from the previous night came back to him and he couldn’t help but smile. It seemed that his presence had kept Sam from having any more nightmares. At least he was good for something. He pressed his face to the top of Sam’s head just breathing him in and trying very hard to ignore the urge to pee. Luckily Sam woke up very soon after and had the same look of confusion for a moment, before his cheeks reddened and he said, “I’m so…” he was stopped by a stern eyebrow raise from Gabriel and he changed tracks. “Thank you?” 

Gabriel’s look softened into a smile. “You’re welcome, Sam,” he said genuinely as he nudged the hunter off of him and made his way for the bathroom. He knew that Sam would need to use it too, so he let him before he headed back in to brush his teeth, shave, and shower. 

“Do you want some help with the shaving?” Sam asked. He’d been surprised that he had actually enjoyed doing that for Gabriel yesterday and wouldn’t mind doing it again. 

“Thanks, but I’ll be okay. I need to learn to do things for myself sometime,” he said with a grateful smile. He didn’t want the hunter to think that he was pushing him away. 

“Okay. Sure. Just holler if you need anything,” Sam told him. He waited until he heard the shower running before he headed downstairs to take care of his own morning routine. 

Gabriel managed to only cut himself a few times while he was shaving. It was really the same number of times he had yesterday, but considering that he did his whole face today, he counted it as a win. He even managed to wash in the shower this time, and he was feeling pretty good by the time he made it downstairs and started on breakfast just as Sam came out of the bathroom himself. 

Sam couldn’t help but go over to Gabriel and take the former archangel’s face in his hands as he looked him over from every angle and even ran his thumbs over the now smooth skin. He saw the few nicks, but all in all, “Good job. Told you you’d get better.” He couldn’t resist one last run of his thumb over Gabriel’s cheek as he let him go and Gabriel gave a soft chuckle at the treatment as he thanked Sam. 

Gabriel was just putting the first pancake in the skillet when he heard the downstairs shower start up again, and by the time the food was hitting the table, everyone had made it there, none of them willing to miss Gabriel’s breakfast. About halfway through breakfast the phone rang and Bobby got up to answer it. After a few one word answers he hung up and turned to the three at the table. “Got a possible vamp nest a couple states over. You boys wanna grab it?” 

They all looked at each other and after three matching shrugs, Dean looked back at Bobby and said, “Sure.” Vamps didn’t exactly require marksmanship skills, so he wasn’t too worried about Gabriel’s not quite up to par yet shooting ability. They did, however, require blades, which Gabriel was an expert at, so it would be a good first hunt for him. They talked details as they finished breakfast and headed out afterwards.


	10. Chapter 10

They stopped for lunch along the way and rolled into Racine, Wisconsin around four in the afternoon. They quickly checked into the motel and got a double a single. Gabriel noticed the nervous look on Sam’s face as he realized that it would be expected for him and Dean to share and he knew that Sam didn’t want Dean to know about his nightmares. He sighed and got ready to play a part. “Um…I’ve never…slept in a room by myself,” he said nervously, only partially playing up the nerves, but part of him had also been hoping for the chance to fall apart without having to worry. 

Dean narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, before saying, “Okay. You and Sam can take the double.” He tossed Sam the keys and said, “Why don’t you go grab us some dinner?” Sam didn’t really want to go. He could see that something was about to go down while he was gone, but he couldn’t think of any reason to decline so he decided to just be as quick as he could. There was a diner just a mile up the road, so he would go there. As soon as he was pulling out, Dean rounded on Gabriel. “Okay what’s the deal?” 

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked trying to play innocent. 

“Even if that load of crap were true you would never admit it, and we both know it. So I’ll ask one more time. What’s going on?”

Gabriel sighed. He’d tried. And Sam had specifically told him not to say anything. “Sam’s been having nightmares about hell and he doesn’t want you to know, but I don’t want him to have to deal with them alone.”

“Why wouldn’t he want me to know? I mean, if anyone understands hell nightmares it’s me.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he just doesn’t want you to worry. Maybe he’s worried about bringing back bad memories for you. Maybe he’s just embarrassed. I know he was embarrassed when I found out. Just give him some time.”

“You want me to keep pretending I don’t know?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“Yeah. If he thinks I betrayed his trust then neither of us will be able to help him,” Gabriel pointed out. 

Dean had to admit that Gabriel made sense. He didn’t really like the idea of someone else taking care of his brother, but if they were going to hunt together then he needed to learn to trust Gabriel completely. “But you’ll take care of him though?” Gabriel nodded. “And if you need help…” 

“I’ll let you know. I promise.” 

“Good enough. Just…” Dean broke off frustrated not able to find the words he was looking for.

“I know,” Gabriel got the gist. 

Sam was glad to see everyone still in once piece and miraculously still friendly when he got back. They were going over the news reports and maps trying to pinpoint a likely area for the nest and/or a likely place they may be hunting that night. “Why don’t you think it’ll be at that bar?” Dean asked Gabriel who seemed certain that it wouldn’t be. 

“It’s too close to the last one. Sure it fits the normal place, but look at the pattern. After this place, they jumped all the way over here to this one, and then all the way over here. They never go that close together back to back. They’re smart. It’ll be here. I’m sure of it,” Gabriel explained. 

Sam had to admit they seemed to work well together. “If you’re wrong…” Dean started with a warning. 

“Yes, I know. You get free reign of the music for a week,” he finished. 

“Hey!” Sam said. That had been one of the best things about having Gabriel around. Having someone else on his side for a little variety in the music. 

Gabriel turned around and winked at him while saying, “Don’t worry kiddo. I’m not wrong.”

“And what do you get if you’re right?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow, hoping it would be the opposite. 

“A little more trust in my skills in the future,” Gabriel said with a shrug. He wasn’t going to fight the lopsided agreement this time. He had no problem with being expected to prove himself. Just as long as things changed once he did. 

After dinner they headed to the bar that Gabriel had pegged and sure enough a group of people came in together a little after sundown and they were chatting but immediately split up. That drew their suspicions right off the bat. Who comes to a bar with a group, just to abandon them once you’re there? It was just their luck that there were three of them so they each called one. Dean’s started heading out with a woman on his arm about an hour later and he slipped away and followed while the other two kept surreptitious eyes on their own targets. 

Dean slid back into the booth about ten minutes later. “We were right. One down,” he said. 

It was another thirty minutes before Gabriel’s guy headed out with another girl and he followed, Dean right behind him. Gabriel knew it wasn’t about not trusting him to handle it. Not completely at least. It was about having backup whenever possible. The vampire led the girl into an alley, and then lost his head as soon as he showed his teeth. Gabriel was exceedingly fast, but wasn’t about to act before he got that confirmation. The girl was a little shaken, but they just sent her home with a warning not to talk about what happened. She was drunk enough she’d probably never remember anyway. 

They got back to the bar just to see Sam slipping out after his prey and they fell into step behind him. This one didn’t go so well though. This vamp seemed to be older, more controlled, and smarter. Something must have tipped him off that he was being followed because he set up an ambush for Sam. 

Sam rounded the corner just to be thrown against the wall and his machete went flying. They fought for a minute and Sam was reaching for the machete while trying to keep the vamp’s fangs from his neck when suddenly the head was rolling away. Sam glanced up to see a smug Gabriel standing there and Dean just turning the corner. They kicked the body off Sam and helped him up as Dean said a little breathless, “Well we’ve found another thing that Gabriel’s good at. Sprinting.” 

“Did you doubt it with how quick he is on his feet when fighting?” Sam asked. 

“You guys really do rely on brute force to get you through everything don’t you?” Gabriel asked shaking his head. He would freely admit that when it came to strength he wasn’t even in the same ballpark as them, but he still had valuable skills. 

“Come on. Let’s go see if we can pin down the location of the nest,” Sam said and they headed towards the two likely locations, both abandoned farmhouses smack dab in the center of the circle the vamps were hunting in. The first was obviously still abandoned, but there was some activity in the second. Gabriel tapped Sam on the shoulder and held out his hand for the binoculars and pointed up the tree next to him. Sam nodded and gave Gabriel a boost to get him to the first branch and the former archangel climbed up a few more feet before lying flat on his stomach on the branch and putting the binoculars to his face. 

About ten minutes later he climbed back down. “There are 8 of them in there. I didn’t see any captives so we should be safe to wait until morning when they’re weaker. Doesn’t look like anyone else plans on heading out tonight. They’re all a little…occupied,” he whispered and they nodded and headed back to the motel, getting back around midnight. 

Sam immediately climbed into bed, but Gabriel just said, “I’m gonna read for a bit.” He waited until Sam was asleep before he pulled out his first aid kit and headed to the bathroom to wrap his ankle. He had twisted it when he jumped from the tree. Getting back here without letting on hadn’t been easy at all. If he had gotten hurt actually fighting something it wouldn’t have been so bad, but he apparently couldn’t even do a stake-out without hurting this fragile little body. 

Gabriel knew that when he was this tired he had a tendency to fall asleep when he got upset and, not wanting to explain why he was sleeping in the bathroom, managed to make it to the bed before the crushing emptiness overtook him. How did humans manage to live like this all the time? No wonder they used so many drugs and drank so much and did anything they could to escape it. Gabriel felt like he was drowning. 

When Sam started crying out for help in his sleep a few hours later, Gabriel climbed out of his bed and sat next to Sam, running a hand through his hair. He wasn’t surprised when Sam jumped awake and immediately latched onto him. Gabriel lay down and pulled him close as the hunter cried. Gabriel didn’t blame him a bit. He knew full well what both Michael and Lucifer were capable of, and he could only imagine the horrors he must have faced in that five years he was there. “You wanna talk about it?” Gabriel asked softly. He wasn’t going to push, but he was at least going to keep asking. When Sam shook his head burrowing it even deeper into Gabriel’s chest, he just said. “Okay. Offers always open Sammy. Anytime.” When the hunter had calmed down to sniffles, Gabriel asked, “Do you want me to stay?”

“If you…um…don’t mind,” Sam said sheepishly. 

“I don’t,” Gabriel assured him as he slid under the blankets and they were both soon asleep. The alarm went off about half an hour before sunrise. They were going to take care of the nest, then grab breakfast and skip town before anybody found all the bodies they were dropping.


	11. Chapter 11

The vamps, while weaker due to the sunlight, were on their guard when the hunters showed up, apparently pegging the fact that their people hadn’t come back as a sign, so they were set on as soon as they showed up. They had apparently pegged Gabriel as the weakest link, probably due to his size, and sought to get him out of the way quickly as four of them set on him and two each on Sam and Dean. 

Gabriel took one out before they even got too close, but then all three were on him. He was fast enough to avoid any major damage, but he got a rake of nails across his side that hurt like a bitch and got knocked around a little bit. He managed to take out two more before it was apparently Sam’s turn to save him, as the last one’s head slid off without Gabriel’s intervention to reveal Sam standing there. 

Gabriel took a step forward, only to lose his footing and that’s when Sam noticed the blood staining his right side too and rushed forward to catch him. All three of them were a little worse for wear as they hobbled back to the impala. The first thing Sam wanted to do was check Gabriel’s side. He pulled the former archangel’s shirt up and saw the cuts and hissed in sympathy. “Doesn’t look like they need stitches, but we should get them cleaned and bandaged and get the bleeding stopped.”

“You can do that while I drive,” Dean said anxious to get the hell out of there, so Sam sat in the back with Gabriel cleaning out his cuts with alcohol before pressing the bandaged tightly over them. 

“Keep pressure on that,” Sam told him as he moved down to Gabriel’s leg. He could tell by the way he’d buckled that it was his foot or ankle that was messed up and not, say, his knee. He pulled off Gabriel’s boot and sock only to furrow his brow for a moment before it dawned on him what it meant. “You were already hurt,” Sam said angrily. 

“Sam…” Gabriel started to explain. 

“Your ankle is already wrapped, badly I might add. How long has it been hurt?” Sam interrogated him. 

“It’s fine,” Gabriel protested. 

“The hell it is. You went into that fight already hurt. You could have died!” Sam ignored the fact that he and Dean played hurt all the time, and usually without mentioning it. This was different. “How. Long?”

“Jumping out of the tree last night okay? I just twisted it a little. It wasn’t bad until psycho bitch threw me into the wall,” Gabriel snapped. 

“And you wrapped it yourself, not even knowing what you were doing, and hid it from us?” Sam asked heatedly. 

“It’s not like I hurt it in a fight. I was jumping out of a damn tree for christ’s sake. Like you need a reason to tell me I’m not good enough,” Gabriel snapped. 

Sam recoiled like he’d been slapped. “What?!”

“You made it perfectly clear that you didn’t want me hunting with you. And don’t think I haven’t noticed how closely you’ve been watching me, waiting for me to fail, waiting for a reason.”

“Hold up now,” Dean said jumping in from the front seat. “Yeah we’ve been watching, but not waiting for you to fail. It’s your first hunt. Of course we’re gonna try and keep an eye on you. It has nothing to do with waiting for you to fail or wanting you to.”

“And the reason I didn’t want you hunting is because I was worried about you, not because I thought you weren’t good enough. I was worried that you’d forget that you’re not invincible anymore and get into trouble you couldn’t get out of.”

Gabriel deflated at the explanations and just grumbled, “It’s not like it’s something I can forget.”

Dean pulled into a diner parking lot and said, “I’m gonna run and grab some breakfast. I’ll be right back. We can eat on the road,” as he got out of the car and headed inside. 

“And I’ll just wrap this back up right,” Sam said slowly unwrapping Gabriel’s ankle. “And next time you get hurt, tell me. Please. At least so I can help you bandage it if nothing else, okay?” 

“I’ll try,” Gabriel promised as Sam’s hands moved expertly over his ankle which was now a lot more swollen than it had been last night. 

“And for what it’s worth, you did a hell of a job out there,” Sam told him and Gabriel looked up at him with a genuine smile. Sam patted Gabriel’s foot. “All set. Let’s take another look at your side.” He pulled back the bandage to see that it was just weeping blood now, so he grabbed some new bandages to replace the current soaked ones and taped them down. It wasn’t until he was almost done that he realized just how long he was taking. It should have taken him half the time to do this. When he realized why, that he just wanted more contact with Gabriel, he shook himself out of it. He finished the last little bit hastily, and asked, “You hurt anywhere else?”

“Nothing that needs attention. Just a little battered and bruised,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. 

“Aren’t we all,” Sam replied as he slid out and back around to the passenger seat. Gabriel had been mostly laid out in the backseat and perching on the edge of the seat like he had wasn’t at all comfortable. “Try and stay still for a while so you don’t get the bleeding started up again. She really got you good there.”

Dean popped back in and started handing out food before he said, “Everyone all friends again now?” When he got twin nods, he continued. “Okay so just one thing then. There’s nothing wrong with playing hurt as long as you know your limits. You put yourself or any of us in danger because you shouldn’t be out there, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

“I know. And I wouldn’t,” Gabriel assured him. 

“Good. That’s all I needed to know,” Dean said. 

They headed back towards Bobby’s. They decided they were going to make that their base for the time being until Gabriel was up to par with the guns. They couldn’t exactly walk into a shooting range with unregistered weapons and no permits, not to mention they tended to take a dim view of sawed-offs filled with salt rounds. 

When they rolled back into Bobby’s around dinnertime, the old hunter took one look at them, particularly Gabriel limping and covered in blood, and asked, “What’d you do? Toss him in first as a distraction?”

Dean let out a loud belly laugh. “Nah. They apparently found him enough of a distraction even with us there. Out of the eight, four of them made a beeline right for him.”

Bobby looked Gabriel over appraisingly. “Not many hunters can take on four vamps at once and live to tell about it.”

“Well I only managed three before Sam jumped in and took out the last one,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“I owed you that one after you saved my ass last night,” Sam said with a chuckle. 

“Sounds like you boys have an interesting story,” Bobby chuckled to as they headed inside. “C’mon. I got dinner ready.”

“I’m gonna go change into something a little less bloody before I eat,” Gabriel said heading upstairs with his bag. 

“You need any help?” Sam asked and when he got raised eyebrows from everyone in the house he hastily clarified, “Up the stairs! With your ankle!” He turned bright red and tried not to think about how much he would like to help Gabriel change. 

“I’m good, Sammykins. Thanks though,” Gabriel said with a laugh. 

As Sam sat down to eat, he tried to think about when things had changed, when he had started to look at Gabriel differently. Maybe it was the first time he broke down in the kitchen and Gabriel sat on the floor with him and told him that he was worth it. Maybe it was the first time Gabriel held him after a nightmare and then stayed with him the whole night. Maybe it was when he was teaching him to shave. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, but something had definitely changed for him. It’s not like he could say anything though. Not now. Not when they were actually finding a good place with the three of them. 

About that time the words, “Okay maybe I do need a little help!” floated down the stairs. 

Sam managed to not show his eagerness as he got up and headed upstairs. He walked into the room to find Gabriel trapped in his shirt with it halfway off and he couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently he couldn’t lift his arm enough to get it off and then somehow got it tangled. “Hang on. I gotcha.” 

They got the t-shirt off and then there was still the undershirt to go. Sam tried very hard not to forget to breathe as he took the hem of the shirt and rolled it up, exposing more and more skin all the while, and got it off his good arm, over his head and then off the bad arm. “Maybe…just a button-up for now?”

“Probably easier,” Gabriel admitted as he went in his bag and found one. He could tell how flustered and uncomfortable Sam was and he felt bad for making him do this. He tried to get it on himself, but Sam just took it out of his hand and slid it over his bad arm and helped his good arm into it and then started buttoning it up. Gabriel took the hunter’s hands and their eyes met and Gabriel had to try and remember to breathe. “I can do this part,” he said in barely more than a whisper. 

Sam found himself lost in those beautiful honey eyes until it registered what Gabriel had said and he jerked his hands away and stepped back. “Right. Sorry. Need anything else?” he asked quickly not looking up from the floor. Why did he have to suddenly become aware of his feelings now of all times?

“I should be good now. Thanks,” Gabriel said trying to keep the sadness out of his voice at the hunter’s hasty retreat.


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriel made it back downstairs, but he didn’t think he could eat right now. He needed some air. He made it to the door before Sam said, “Where you going?” 

“Just to take a walk. I’m not really hungry right now,” he said not looking back.

“You really shouldn’t be trying to walk on that ankle,” Sam said concerned. 

“I won’t go far. I just want some fresh air,” Gabriel said. 

“You want some company?” Sam asked. 

“That’s okay. You eat,” he said rushing out the door. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to hold himself together and falling apart in the room he shared with Sam, when there was a good chance the hunter would pop in any minute to see why he wasn’t coming down, would just be stupid. At least now, Sam thought he was taking a walk and he would have some peace for a while. He made it around the back of the house and leaned against it, wrapping his arms around his middle, just barely keeping from pulling his wounds open again, as he gasped for breath amongst the heaving sobs that were pulling from him against his will. 

Sam looked after Gabriel worriedly. There was something off. Why would he be in such a rush to take a walk. Especially when he was hurt and exhausted. Something wasn’t right. After a minute he pushed his plate away and headed outside after him, closing the door as quietly as possible and creeping around the house. He’d said he wasn’t going far. Sam would try a circuit around the house first, then expand it. Turned out he didn’t need to expand it, because as he approached the back corner of the house he heard it. He rounded the corner and stopped dead at what he saw. “Gabe? You ok?” 

Gabriel jumped about ten feet in the air and turned away from Sam, trying to wipe his eyes without being obvious. “Yeah. I’m good. Just getting some fresh air is all.”

Sam grabbed his good arm just above the wrist. “Don’t Gabriel. Please,” he said sadly. 

“Don’t what Samsquatch?” he said turning to look at the hunter, as collected as he was going to get. 

“Don’t shut me out. Don’t pretend I didn’t just see that. Just…talk to me, Gabe. Please,” he begged. 

“Sam…” Gabriel sighed. 

“Come on. How many times have I cried on you now? Turnabout’s only fair play,” he tried to coax it out of him with humor. 

“Sure, you’ve ‘cried on me’ as you say, but you don’t talk to me either,” Gabriel pointed out, desperate for anything to put Sam off. 

“Ok, find. You know what? If that’s what it takes to get you to talk to me then I’ll do it too. I’ll tell you every gory detail of every nightmare. I’ll tell you everything about hell, I’ll tell you whatever you want, Gabe, just please…let me in,” Sam bargained, pulling Gabriel in for a hug. “Please. Just talk to me.”

“It’s just…a little overwhelming sometimes is all,” Gabriel tried to play it off. 

“What is?” Sam prompted. 

“This whole human thing.”

“What exactly about it?” Sam asked. He knew there was something there. He just had to wait for the right button to open the floodgates. 

It’s just…the little things. I get shampoo in my eyes while I wash my hair, I cut myself shaving, something always hurts. I mean don’t get me wrong. I’m no stranger to pain. I’ve felt pain that would drive any human mad, but this is just a small constant chipping that is just wearing away at me, and I hurt myself doing the stupidest things, I can’t do anything right…” 

Sam wanted to interrupt. To tell him that he did plenty of things right and that he could help with so much of that, but he could tell by the way that Gabriel was starting to talk faster and freer that he was on a roll and if Sam stopped him now he’d probably never get anything out of him again, so he let him keep going.

“And I’m just so cold and alone and I don’t mean alone like there’s no one there, because I know people are there, but I can’t sense them. I can’t see their souls. I can’t feel their light, their warmth. I might as well be surrounded by illusions. Nothing looks right or sounds right or even tastes right. It’s like my whole world is suddenly being passed through layers and layers of filters and I’m only getting the barest taste of it and I keep reaching for more, but there’s nothing there. I can remember the sounds of the angels in my head and now the silence is deafening. The world is so dark without souls to light it. It’s like I’m blind and deaf and locked in a closet except I can still see and hear just enough to remember what it’s like to really see and hear, and it’s just…it’s too much…sometimes…sometimes it’s just…just suffocating, and I can’t…can’t breathe or…or think. I just…” and that was the end. 

Gabriel was slowly getting hysterical and then falling apart near the end until he was sobbing in Sam’s shirt, his bad arm to Sam’s side, hand wrapped tightly in the hunter’s shirt and the other arm around his back. Sam caught him as his knees buckled and just held him tighter. “Jesus Gabe,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the former archangel’s hair. “I wish you had come to me. I wish you had let me help you. God Gabe I’m so sorry,” Sam murmured holding onto the former archangel for dear life. “I’ve got you Gabe. I’m here. I won’t let go. I’ve got you,” he said as much for himself as for Gabriel as the tears were falling down his cheeks too. 

It was a long time before the sobs turned to sniffles, and Sam had waved Dean away when he came looking for them. Luckily, his brother avoided anything approaching emotion like I cat avoids the ocean so he took one look at them and all but teleported away. Once he figured Gabriel could get words out again, he asked, “Why wouldn’t you talk to me? Why would you try to handle this on your own? You have to know I’d be here for you.”

“You were already feeling unnecessarily guilty. I never wanted to pile any more on you,” Gabriel said despondently knowing that was what he’d just done. 

“Jesus Gabe. Don’t…don’t ever…god don’t do that. Please,” he put both hands on the side of Gabriel’s face and pulled his head back enough to press his lips to Gabriel’s forehead as his thumbs wiped away the tears. “Please don’t do that. Let us lean on each other okay? I’ll put you back together and then you can put me back together. Don’t try and go it alone anymore. Okay? Please.” He knew he was babbling. He knew he was probably crossing a line he couldn’t come back from, but he didn’t care right now. To hear everything that Gabriel was suffering through all alone, and then to find that he was doing so because he didn’t want to hurt Sam…

“You can’t help me, Sam. No one can,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Maybe I can talk to Death. We could…I don’t know…undo it?”

Sam suddenly found Gabriel’s good hand wrapped in his shirt at his chest and he was shoved against the outer wall of the house and his eyes went wide. “Don’t you fucking dare even think it,” Gabriel hissed. 

“But you can…”

“I will kill you if I have to Sam,” he threatened. 

“You wouldn’t…”

“The hell I wouldn’t,” he snapped. “I kill you, you go to heaven. You pull this stupid stunt it’s right back to the cage. No contest.”

“Gabriel, just hear me out…”

“No. Absolutely not. See this is exactly why I hid it from you. I don’t give a damn what kind of crap I have to deal with, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is worth seeing you back in that cage. I’d take your place before I let you go back there.”

“Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up again. I promise, just don’t go back to hiding, Gabriel, please. I can’t…I have to…” Sam pulled him close again. “I love you Gabe. Please just let me be here. I can just be here. An anchor to hold on to when you feel lost. To remind you how to breathe. I can’t fix it, but I can help you cope. You just have to let me. Please.” Sam didn’t even realize that he just blew right past the line he was trying to walk like it wasn’t even there. The words just started falling out of his mouth without censor or thought. 

“You love me?” Gabriel asked pulling back enough to look at Sam. 

Sam opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to think back through what he said. As soon as he realized that he’d said it, his eyes went wide. He thought for a moment about backtracking, but he couldn’t. He didn’t have it in him to stand here and lie. To tell Gabriel that he didn’t love him. He couldn’t do it. So he barreled ahead. “I do. I love you, Gabriel. I don’t care if you feel the same way and I’m not sorry about it. I just want you to let me help you. Or at least let someone help you if this makes things too weird for you mmph.”

Sam’s words were cut by the gentle press of lips against his. It was sweet and soft and neither made any move to deepen it. When Gabriel pulled away, Sam’s lips started to follow him. He heard a breathless relieve chuckle as Gabriel leaned his forehead against Sam’s chest for a moment, before looking back up at him. “Sam, I gave up everything I am to save you. I just told you that I would take your place in hell rather than allow you to go back there. You honestly can’t see that I love you with everything I have?”


	13. Chapter 13

Sam rested his head against Gabriel’s, tears stinging the back of his eyelids, as he swallowed around the lump in his throat. He got it now. He got everything. It was an overwhelming thing to be loved so much, so completely. It didn’t even dawn on him that he had wanted to go back to hell, back to the cage, to save Gabriel from this pain. Gabriel’s sacrifice was…everything. “I love you, Gabriel, and I’ll do my best to be worthy of your love too.”

Gabriel raised his good hand to Sam’s cheek. “You have always been worthy of my love, Sam. And you always will be.”

When Gabriel stumbled slightly, Sam remembered that Gabriel was injured and had been standing on that ankle for far too long. “Come on. Let’s head in and get you off that ankle and check your bandages.” 

“You think we can eat first?” Gabriel asked sheepishly. He was starving. 

Sam laughed. “Sure Gabe. We can eat first.”

Sam finished his aborted dinner while Gabriel ate and Sam couldn’t keep from touching him; a graze of the arm, a brush of the hair back from his eyes, a squeeze to the knee. Gabriel was blooming with the attention. Sam could almost see the tension and sadness falling off of him. Dean appeared in the doorway at one point and raised his eyebrow at the change. He looked between them and then at Sam with a question in his eyes. Sam nodded and grinned. Dean just shrugged, then nodded at him and turned to leave. 

Sam wanted to keep talking to Gabriel, but doubted he wanted to have those sorts of discussions in the main part of the house where anyone could overhear, so he waited until they were finished eating and helped the former archangel up the stairs, making a detour to the freezer first. Once up there Sam removed Gabriel’s boot again, that hadn’t been tied or even laced because of the swelling, and he started unwrapping the ankle as he asked, “So how often have you…” Sam wasn’t sure how to put it. What he wanted to say was ‘how often have you needed me and I haven’t been there’ but he was sure that wouldn’t go over well. 

Gabriel got the picture though. “Not often.” When Sam raised a stern eyebrow, Gabriel sighed. “After I got the leg cramp, after you had to shave me, after I twisted my ankle coming out of the tree, and…um…pretty much every night,” he admitted. 

“Okay first, because it keeps getting overlooked in the face of something more serious, when you twisted your ankle coming out of that tree, it wasn’t incompetence or stupidity or whatever else you think it was. I’ve done it more times than I can count. So has Dean. It’s just one of those things that happens.” Sam placed the bag of frozen peas over Gabriel’s ankle as he waited for a response. 

When he got a hesitant nod from Gabriel, he continued on with his next point. “And you mean to tell me that every night, when you’re climbing into my bed and holding me while I cry over my nightmares this is after you crying yourself to sleep, alone and hurting?” Gabriel looked away from him but Sam wasn’t having that. He reached out and took Gabriel’s chin in his hand and pulled him back around until he was looking Sam in the eye. “Never. Again. You need me, you wake me up got it? If I’m not there you find me. I don’t care how silly it seems, or whatever tricks your mind plays on you to tell you that it’s not important enough, or that I don’t want to hear it, or that I would be better off if you leave me alone, or that you’re being a baby, because that’s all a load of crap. I don’t care if you just need a shoulder to cry on because you got a damn hangnail. Come to me, okay?” 

Gabriel bit his lip and nodded only for Sam’s thumb to pull his lip from between his teeth before he kissed him. Gabriel just sank into the kiss, gratefully. He could see Sam’s point now that he knew how Sam felt about him. The idea of Sam suffering alone like that would tear him apart. It wouldn’t be easy to let him in, but he would do his best. When Sam started pulling off his bandages on his side, another thought struck Gabriel. “I should probably start reading up on first aid,” he suggested. 

“Well since you don’t have any lore to catch up on, that’s probably a good idea,” Sam said with a chuckle. “So you can’t raise your arm. Is that because of this or is it something else there too?” 

“A little of both, really. My shoulder is sore, and it hurts to lift it, but I think I could if it weren’t for the way the skin pulls over the cuts when I do. Well, technically I could still lift it I guess, but I don’t want to risk pulling the cuts back open.”

Sam knew better than to try a pain on the scale of one to ten with Gabriel. His experiences with the subject were too varied, so he settled on, “The pain in your shoulder, is it better or worse than your ankle?” 

“Better than the ankle, but worse than the cuts,” he said knowing what Sam was looking for. 

“How do the cuts feel?” Sam asked. 

“They sting a little, but otherwise not bad,” Gabriel told him.

“Good. I’m gonna put some more medicine on them and bandage them up again for tonight, but they should be okay by tomorrow as long as you take it easy. Now let’s take a look at that shoulder.” This time when Sam started unbuttoning Gabriel’s shirt, he let him. 

Sam slid Gabriel’s shirt off and turned him around so he could get a look at his shoulder and he was taken aback at what he saw. The entire shoulder blade area was covered in purpled bruising and scraped all to hell. Sam grabbed the alcohol and took care of the scrapes. They weren’t bad, but it didn’t hurt to be thorough. Not much he could do for the bruising though. It would have to heal on his own. He grabbed some pain pills and handed them to Gabriel who downed them. “Any idea why they all pounced on you anyway?” Sam asked. 

“I don’t know. Maybe they saw me as the weakest link so wanted to get me out of the way quickly, maybe they could somehow sense...what I used to be. Maybe I just looked like an easy meal. I don’t know.”

“Do you think it’s possible that they could sense it?” Sam asked, leaning against the headboard and pulling Gabriel lightly back against him.

“Maybe. I know that angels can sense former angels, but I don’t know about other creatures. There aren’t exactly a lot of former angels to test with,” he said wryly. 

“Well next time we run across a friendly vamp I’ll make sure to ask,” Sam joked. 

“You do that,” Gabriel laughed. 

It was time to turn the conversation back towards more serious things though. “I really did enjoy shaving you, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. Anytime, or all the time, or whatever you want.” Sam said pressing a soft kiss to the back of Gabriel’s jaw. 

“I might take you up on that. Not all the time, because I do need to learn to do it for myself, but sometimes…that could be nice,” Gabriel said resting his head back on Sam’s shoulder. He suspected that he would have enjoyed it too if it hadn’t been for the inner turmoil he’d been feeling at the time. 

“We can get shampoo that won’t irritate your eyes,” Sam offered. He hesitated a little before saying, “Or I can wash it for you.”

“Why Sammy! Are you trying to get in my pants? I’m shocked!” Gabriel teased. 

Sam smacked his good arm and chuckled along with him. While he definitely wouldn’t turn it down, it wasn’t about that and he was sure that Gabriel knew it. “Seriously though, Gabe. Anything you need. Anything I can do to make any of this even the slightest bit easier on you. Just let me know.”


	14. Chapter 14

Over the next few months, the three of them learned to work together better than ever. Gabriel became as good with a gun as the rest of them, and was a damn good hunter. They all had their strengths and weaknesses and they worked well together. In addition to being a fount of lore knowledge, Gabriel was also a brilliant tactician. Their go-to plan wasn’t ‘don’t die’ anymore, though it did occasionally come into play. Generally, whenever Gabriel looked away for more than five minutes. He was good at seeing the big picture, but not so great at seeing the little things. That’s what Sam was for. He could spot the tiny holes in the plan very well, and they would work together to make the plan as foolproof as possible. Dean was the best at making on the fly modifications when things went pear-shaped so he was basically in charge on the operations. 

Gabriel never bothered working on his physical strength like Dean had suggested. He would never be as strong as them, much less strong enough to make a difference against things that could crush him with his bare hands. His skill lay in speed and it had saved their asses just as much if not more than Sam and Dean’s strength had so no one was complaining. They were the best hunter team out there, and it had brought some attention. Mostly from monsters, but also from a family outfit. Their family to be exact. 

They were all very suspicious about just how Samuel Campbell had managed to come back from the dead, not to mention all these cousins they never knew about. When he asked them for help going after the alphas, Gabriel blew his top. “Oh hell no. Absolutely not, and if you know what’s good for you…and the world…you’ll leave them the hell alone.”

Sam and Dean were willing to take his word for it, but the Campbells not so much. “What kind of hunters are you that you wanna just leave these monsters alone.”

“The kind that don’t wanna see the world go up in smoke,” Gabriel snapped. 

“What would you know about it?” Samuel scoffed. He had it on very good authority that no one knew much of anything about the alphas. 

Gabriel gave Sam and Dean a pointed look and they immediately pulled their guns and shooed everyone else out of the room, knowing that they wouldn’t go any other way. “You have no idea who I am,” Gabriel said. “I know far more than you could ever hope to about the alphas…and their mother.”

“Bullshit,” Samuel challenged. 

“You know my name is Gabriel but what you don’t know is that I am THE Gabriel. When Sam got locked in the cage with Lucifer, I traded my wings for his freedom. I am a human with all the knowledge of an archangel, and I am telling you that messing with the alphas is very bad news.”

Samuel was starting to falter in his conviction. “Why?” he asked. 

“Because they have a mother. The mother of all monsters. She’ll turn a blind eye to her distant descendants being killed. Too many to keep track of anyway, but you start going after her firstborns? An angry momma bear will look like a walk in the park compared to the destruction that she will unleash on the world. And that’s not even counting the strength of the alphas alone. The monsters you fight nowadays have been weakened and diluted over the millennia. The alphas are a different story.”

“What kind of powers are we talking, Gabe?” Dean asked. 

“The mother? Greater than an archangel, less than God, but not much less. The alphas? They’re stronger, faster, and more resilient than anything you’ve ever faced by at least a factor of ten. They’re also smarter. Most of them have developed telepathic or telekinetic powers. No human or group of humans has a chance. Demons would be ripped to shreds. An archangel might be able to handle one, with difficulty, seraphs…if they had a large enough group.”

“So basically you’re saying, don’t kick the hornet’s nest?” Dean asked. 

“Exactly.”

“Okay. I get it. Alphas are bad news,” Samuel agreed and rescinded his plea for help. It was too bad he was in it too deep. He didn’t have a choice, but obviously they were never going be persuaded. Let them think they persuaded him. He never said a word to anyone about the conversation or what he’d learned, but he did use it. 

 

It seemed that blasts from the past were becoming a theme, because the next visit they got was from Cas. “Dean. Sam. I’m glad to see you have your soul back,” the seraph said as he appeared in the room. 

“Yeah no thanks to you,” an icy voice came from behind him and he turned to see Gabriel leaning against the wall, hostility written in every feature. 

“Brother?” Cas asked looking at him curiously. “How did this happen?” 

“I did exactly what I told you I was going to do. What was necessary to get Sam’s soul back,” Gabriel told him as he walked over to Sam and put his arm around him possessively. “What do you want Cassie? I seem to remember heaven being more important than us then, so what’s changed?” 

“I need your help. All of you.”

Dean was torn. On one hand this was Cas. Cas had turned his back on heaven for them. He had fallen and sacrificed his life…twice. But then so had Gabriel. Gabriel had given everything it was possible to give and never asked for anything in return, and he had done more to help them in the last six months on a daily basis, as a human, than Cas did in two years with all his powers and abilities, so yeah. If he had to choose, he would choose Gabe, and not only because Sam wouldn’t have it any other way. But with any luck, he wouldn’t have to choose. “What do you need, Cas?”

“One of heaven’s weapons has been misplaced and we believe it is here on Earth. And being used,” Cas told them. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Gabriel exclaimed. “How the hell can heaven’s weapons go missing!?”

“I’m guessing you don’t mean angel blades,” Sam surmised. 

“No. This particular on is the staff of Moses,” Cas told them. 

“Oh, Jesus,” Gabriel said pacing and pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“No. Moses. Jesus’ staff is still accounted for,” Cas said. 

“How did this happen?” Gabriel asked, ignoring the seraph’s cluelessness. 

“Well there is a civil war going on, brother, if you had bothered to remember. There is a great deal of chaos.”

“I’m not your brother anymore Cassie. I’m just a human now, and I do seem to remember you trying to convince me to let Sam be and join the war effort instead, and yeah. Don’t regret my choice. So basically, you screwed up, lost one of the most powerful weapons to exist and now, instead of actually finding it yourself, you’re enlisting us to do the dirty work?” 

“I am rather busy, and since it is now threatening humans, who it is apparently your job to protect, unless that has changed, I’m really just pointing you in the right direction.”

“You always were good with the semantics,” Gabriel snapped. 

“Enough!” Dean broke it up. “Can the family drama. We’ll help however we can Cas.”

Gabriel didn’t like it, but he had to admit that Cas had a point. If the staff of Moses was in human hands and being used against other humans, it was their problem as much as it was heaven’s. It turned out there was another angel behind it, one who had apparently took a page out of his book and faked his own death, even if Gabriel had never gone so low as to deal in souls, and the former archangel put his foot down. “We have the staff piece. The humans are safe. It’s an angel problem from here. We’re out of it.”

“Gabriel…” Dean started to argue. It was still Cas. 

“Do you really want to get in the middle of another angelic civil war?” Gabriel asked pointedly. 

“Yeah. I guess not,” Dean agreed. “But there’s still the matter of the marker on the kid’s soul.”

“Which he sold freely, and is none of our business,” Gabriel said.

“Gabe, he’s just a kid,” Sam appealed to him. “He didn’t have any idea what he was doing.”

“You really think that someone who stoops so low as to deal in souls is going to be reasoned with?” Gabriel asked incredulously. 

“We have to try,” Dean told him. 

Gabriel sighed and turned to Cas. “Okay here’s the deal. You keep us out of any infighting if any other angels show up and we’ll help you confront this one who obviously wants no part of the war either. Deal?” 

Cas agreed and they headed off to find Balthazar living it up. Cas sent the humans outside when Raphael’s agents started showing up, but they ended up being cornered out there too. Sam and Dean worked as a distraction while Gabriel put up the banishing sigil and sent them away before heading back inside just in time for Dean to trap Balthazar in the holy oil. 

Gabriel looked at the dead angel on the floor and was filled with both fury and loss. While Sam and Dean tried to convince the trapped angel to release the kid’s soul, Gabriel glared at Cas. “He didn’t give me a choice,” Cas tried to defend himself. 

“Oh bullshit Cassie. You mean to tell me that three powerless humans cornered by four angels managed to get out of it without hurting anyone but two of you couldn’t handle one any other way than murder?”

“That is war, Gabriel,” Cas told him. 

“And when that war justifies killing your own brothers, what the hell are you even fighting for?” he snapped, and seeing that the boys were done he said, “Just send us back.”


	15. Chapter 15

They had all noticed Bobby getting more and more anxious, but none of them knew why until he finally snapped. “It may have slipped your mind, but Crowley owns my soul and the clock is tickin’ and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit around and be…damned!”

“Hold up a tic. When the hell did that happen?” Gabriel asked confused and a little annoyed. If these damn hunters didn’t quit selling their damn souls for every little thing he was going to end up with an aneurism. 

“It was supposed to be a loan. He needed a deal to be able to track death, and then he was supposed to give it back,” Bobby said. “It was the last piece we needed to prevent the end of the world. What was I supposed to do?” 

“And you actually trusted him to give it back?” Gabriel asked incredulously. Under the circumstances, he could forgive the old man, even if it was stupid. 

“Not really, but what choice did I have,” Bobby said gruffly. 

“Ok, well do you have any ideas how to get him to cough it up?” Dean asked. 

“Yeah I do actually…”

 

Gabriel eyed the giant flying machine dubiously. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” 

“I’m sure as hell not,” Dean muttered as he downed another of the miniature bottles of whiskey. 

“Oh both of you quit your whining. Bobby needs our help, so suck it up,” Sam said rolling his eyes. 

“Oh none us are balking at helping him. I just don’t see how those things can possibly be safe. Can’t we just…I dunno…take a boat or something?” Gabriel asked. 

“That takes too long and they are perfectly safe,” Sam assured him. 

“If I die I’ll kill you,” Gabriel grumbled. 

“You and me both,” Dean agreed. 

“Yes, yes, I’m sure, now just get on the damn plane,” Sam said impatiently as a few people around them chuckled and a few more gave Sam sympathetic looks as they tried not to. As they finally started moving forward, Gabriel reached around Sam and snatched one of the bottles out of Dean’s hand just before he opened it, starting a bit of a scuffle on the ramp and Sam shoved them to either side and said, “I swear, it’s like dealing with damn children. If you two don’t settle down, I’m gonna knock both of you out until we get there.” Of course, Sam was intending to do that anyway as soon as they were seated and sure enough, the sedatives he’d slipped them, combined with the alcohol, soon had them snoring away before the plane even started to taxi the runway. 

It wasn’t for nothing though, because they did manage to get Bobby’s soul pried from the demon’s grip. After Crowley showed up to retrieve his bones, Gabriel could help but grumble, “Should have made a ride back part of the deal.”

“So you’d rather travel by demon than by plane?” Sam asked amusedly. 

“Let’s see, a three second unpleasant trip or a fifteen-hour unpleasant trip. Gee I wonder.”

“You slept through the whole thing!” Sam exclaimed. 

“That’s not the point,” Dean jumped in on Gabriel’s side. 

“Oh for crying out loud,” Sam just threw up his hands and walked away. 

 

It wasn’t until they took out a nest of about twenty vampires right in the heart of the city, preying on young Twilight fans, that they realized that the alphas were getting riled. At least the alpha vamp, judging by the little information they were able to get. “You don’t think your grandad is still going after the alphas do you?” Gabriel asked curiously.

“No way would he be that stupid,” Dean assured him. 

“But it does beg the question of how he even got onto the idea in the first place. I’d never even heard of the alphas until he said something,” Sam pointed out. 

“That’s true. It’s been lost to time almost as long as I’ve been on earth,” Gabriel said. “He had to have been pointed in that direction by someone. And that someone could have easily found another patsy once old Campbell proved resistant.”

“But who? And how do we stop it?” Sam asked. 

“I think it’s time for another conversation with dear old granddad,” Dean said. It wasn’t to be though as the place they had been using for a base was deserted and there were no clues to be found. The only number he had for any of them was disconnected, and he knew as well as anyone else that if a hunter didn’t want to be found they wouldn’t be. 

 

They were soon distracted by another case though. People were being forced to tell the truth. The brutal honest truth and a rash of murders and suicides seemed to be the result. “Ok so what could be causing this?” Sam asked Gabriel. 

“A number of things. Spells, pagan gods, demon deals, even…um…artifacts.”

Dean noticed Gabriel’s hesitation at the word artifacts and asked suspiciously, “What kind of artifacts?”

“Well…there’s my old horn of truth for one,” he said sheepishly. “But it’s been locked up in heaven’s armory for millennia!”

“Kinda like the staff of Moses was?” Sam asked pointedly and Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Let’s just try and rule out some other things before we go calling Cassie down here please. I really don’t know if I can deal with him right now,” Gabriel said tiredly. 

Sam gave Dean a pointed look and he said, “I’m gonna go grab some dinner.”

Once they were alone, Sam pulled Gabriel into his arms and kissed him softly. “Talk to me, Gabe.”

“It’s just…no matter how bad things were at home…there would be knock down drag out fights, we’d get hurt all the time, the screaming and the tantrums, but never…never did a brother kill another brother. EVER. That’s why Lucifer was put in the cage in the first place. The idea of killing a brother was just unthinkable. But now…when Castiel mentioned civil war, I imagined it like it was then, yelling and fighting and all, but…but they’re killing each other Sammy. My brothers are dying and killing each other. It’s just…I can’t…”

“Shh…it’s okay, Gabe. I gotcha,” Sam murmured seeing as the former archangel was losing his words. He understood the issue now and couldn’t imagine how Gabriel must be feeling with all this. 

No matter how often Gabriel tried to tell himself that he was human now. They weren’t his brothers anymore. It didn’t matter because they still were. They always would be. “I never imagined there to be a day where Lucifer could be considered more moral than the other angels,” he sniffled. “Even he would never kill a brother.”

Sam considered that for a moment. Lucifer had taken Gabriel prisoner rather than kill him. He had begged Michael not to fight him. To just walk away. Michael had seemed like he didn’t want to kill Lucifer either, but he had the air of someone who had no choice. And now all the angels were running around killing each other. It was no wonder Gabriel was a mess. “I wish there were something we could do to stop it,” Sam said sadly pressing his lips to Gabriel’s neck as he held him close. “I’m sorry.”

Gabriel had learned how to better cope with being human since he and Sam had gotten together. He did still have his breakdowns, but they were few and far between and Sam helped him through them, just as Gabriel helped Sam when his nightmares of hell overwhelmed him, so comforting each other through tears was no new experience. Neither was Dean needing to leave so they could take care of each other. It was a standing rule that when he was sent out for something like that, he would take the food back to his room and they would join him later. It was a good half hour after they heard the impala roll back in before they headed over to Dean’s room to eat.

The next day they were fairly certain they were dealing with Gabriel’s horn of truth. When the man at the music shop showed them the picture of the stolen horn, Gabriel squinted at it for a good while. It wasn’t the best picture and it was rather small and not even from the right angle for him to see the etchings, but otherwise it looked right, and it was just too much of a coincidence. “It’s definitely possible. I can’t tell for sure though,” he told the boys with a shrug. 

They headed back to the motel and Dean prayed for Cas. “Castiel? Hello? Possible loose nuke down here, angelic weapon. Kinda your department. You hear that, Cas?”

“Hello Dean,” Cas said as he appeared in the room. He looked around to find that Gabriel wouldn’t even look at him. “You mentioned an angelic weapon?” 

Sam took over. “We think it’s Gabriel’s horn of truth, but the picture of it wasn’t clear enough to be sure. Everything fits though.”

Cas nodded and disappeared. He reappeared a few minutes later and said, “It’s not the horn of truth.”

“You’re sure?” Dean asked narrowing his eyes. 

“I’m positive. There are no angelic weapons anywhere in a five-hundred-mile radius. Horn of truth included,” Cas assured them. 

“Ok fine. You can go now,” Gabriel snapped. 

“Brother…” Cas said sadly. 

“No. Just go,” Gabriel said firmly. 

 

That evening they were watching television when the news came on, and Gabriel tilted his head curiously at the television. “What’s up?” Sam asked. 

“She looks familiar,” he said thoughtfully. 

“She’s a news anchor. You’ve probably seen her on television before,” Sam offered. 

Gabriel didn’t look like he completely believed that but, he said, “Yeah. Maybe.”


	16. Chapter 16

Dean was out at a bar, while Gabriel and Sam stayed in. They went with him often enough, but Gabriel wasn’t really in the mood to be out and cheerful tonight, and Sam could go either way, so he stayed with his lover. Gabriel’s full attention was pulled by the news anchor though, and if Sam didn’t know why he might have been jealous. “Oh fuck me,” Gabriel breathed out after an hour or so as he scrambled off the bed and dove for the computer. He needed confirmation before he said anything. 

He searched for pictures and videos of Ashley Frank, and when he found one of her encountering a dog, he was sure. This wasn’t good at all. He managed to push the laptop back away from him before he started to bang his head on the table. “Gabe?” Sam asked worriedly. 

“Veritas,” Gabriel said. “We’re dealing with Veritas, the goddess of truth.” He pointed at the paused video on the laptop. Take off the glasses, pull the hair down, change the frumpy clothes…that’s definitely her. You need to call your brother. Get him back here.”

“Right,” Sam said, knowing that he would get more information once Dean was back. 

“Heya Sammy. What’s wrong? Bored with your boyfriend already?” 

Sam had no idea why he was responding to such a question, but he said, “Not at all. It’s pretty much impossible to get bored with Gabriel. Even in the times when conversation starts to get boring we just…”

“Whoa, Sammy!” Gabriel grabbed the phone from his hand before saying to Dean, “You got cursed you damn idiot. Just get back here. We know what we’re dealing with and for the love of all that’s holy don’t talk to anyone!” He hung up before Dean could ask him anything. 

It was about twenty minutes before Dean walked in the door and asked, “Okay so what are we dealing with?” 

“Veritas, the goddess of truth,” Gabriel said. 

“How to we kill her?” Dean asked. 

“Brass knife dipped in dog’s blood. Sammy you got a location yet?” Gabriel asked hopefully. He didn’t like having Dean around when he was cursed like that. Granted he would have answered both those questions anyway, but the compulsion to do so was extremely uncomfortable and unsettling. 

Dean, on the other hand, was getting an idea. Getting incriminating information about Gabriel was pretty much impossible, partially because not much phased him and partially because he was completely tight lipped on anything that did. He knew pretty much every embarrassing moment Sam had ever had and Gabriel had more than enough blackmail material on both of them, so it was only fair if he get some on Gabriel too and he wouldn’t get a better opportunity. “So Gabe,” He started with an evil grin. 

“Oh no. Don’t you dare…”

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?” Dean asked smugly and Sam’s eyes widened from his spot at the table. On one hand he was offended on behalf of his lover, but on the other hand, he was kinda curious too. Either way it was too late to stop it now. 

“Well I organized this orgy once…you son of a bitch…between myself, a wood nymph, a gorgon, a centaur, and a gargoyle...”

“Oh god. I’m sorry I asked. Please stop,” Dean begged. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy and even Sam’s hand over Gabriel’s mouth didn’t stop them from getting the whole long story about the orgy that traumatized a nymph for life and ended in a half dead centaur and a gorgon that went looking for a mirror and the first gargoyle to turn to stone. Both hunters were standing there with looks on their faces like they weren’t sure whether to laugh, cry, or find some brain bleach.

“I will get you back for that one,” Gabriel said annoyed as he went over and plopped down on the bed, crossed his arms, and sulked right up until Sam found an address for the goddess. Gabriel knew that his plight was far from over, and really hoped his plan worked and Veritas didn’t get a chance to interrogate them. 

Then again, when does hope ever do anything for hunters. They ended up tied up in her basement as she looked them over. “Well well well. If it isn’t Loki. And all human now? What a surprise.” Gabriel just glared at her. “And now…” she said gleefully. “My powers will work on you.” 

That was exactly what Gabriel had been afraid of. He didn’t dare glance over at Sam, but he knew that the youngest hunter was already working on getting them out of the restraints. He’d seen Dean’s hidden blade slide away when they were thrown across the room, and her attention was on him so he couldn’t do anything. Gabriel only hoped that her rage at his answers was directed at him rather than the others. 

“So tell me Loki. Did you ever love me?” she asked smugly. 

“No,” Gabriel said bluntly. “You were never anything more than a nice piece of ass. You were a fun challenge and the bragging rights were just the icing on the cake.” He had hoped he would be able to stop after just the simple ‘no’ but of course she just kept pulling the words from him. “Not only was I the first god to tempt the great Veritas into my bed, but the first one to manage to convince you of a lie.”

She finally lost her temper and released him from her power as she slapped him hard across the face, her nails pulling deep scratches from his eye to his jaw as she let loose an angry scream. At least Gabriel had managed to distract her enough that Sam was able to finish cutting through his ropes sliding the small penknife over to Dean as he dove for one of the knives that would kill her. Now that her attention wasn’t on him anymore he was able to start cutting through his own ropes and the fact that his lover was getting his ass kicked just spurred him on faster. 

Gabriel managed to get loose just before Dean and scrambled to his feet dropping a kick to Veritas’ side and rolling her off the hunter and towards Dean, who had just picked up the knife and stabbed her in the heart as she stopped at his feet. Gabriel reached down to help Sam up, and Sam, unsurprisingly, immediately started fussing over Gabriel’s face. “I’m fine, Samshine. We’ll put something on it when we get back to the motel,” he said fondly, taking Sam’s hand in his own and bringing it to his lips. 

On the way back to the motel, Dean couldn’t help but look back at Gabriel and ask, “Did you seriously play a goddess?” 

Gabriel laughed. “Oh please. It be easier to list the goddesses…and gods…that I didn’t ‘play’ as you put it.”

Sam just shook his head. He knew enough of Gabriel’s past exploits that it didn’t surprise him at all. The former archangel certainly wasn’t one to brag to his current lover about past lovers, but he never hid anything either and if something came up or if Sam asked, he would share.

 

They hit a dry spell as far as the cases went for a while after that and as Sam was searching for another case, Gabriel went to Dean. “Can I take the impala for a little while?” 

“You want to what?” Dean asked incredulously. 

Gabriel could count on one hand the number of times that he’d gotten to drive the impala since he’d joined up with them almost a year ago, and every time it was because both of them were too injured to drive and he had never driven it alone. He didn’t usually mind the company whenever he went anywhere, but this was something he needed to do alone. He’d been thinking about it for a while now, and now that they had some down time, it was time to stop thinking and start doing. “Come on Dean. You know I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.”

Dean narrowed his eyes at the smaller man. “One scratch…one smudge…one SPOT…and you’re a dead man. Understand?” he warned holding out the keys. 

He didn’t release them though until Gabriel said, “Yes. Okay. I get it.” Gabriel headed into the town they were camped in for the time being and found a jewelry store and started browsing. He kept finding himself torn between what he wanted to get Sam and what Sam would actually like. It was no secret that he tended towards the extravagant while Sam was far more reserved. When he explained that to the saleslady that wandered over after he’d been browsing for about ten minutes, she gave him that fond smile that he was used to when the more tolerant people found out that he and Sam were a couple that usually preceded the cooing. 

She managed to keep the cooing to a minimum though as she pulled out a particular tray and pointed out a few suggestions. He looked over them for a moment and noticed that some were silver in color. “Are those silver?” he asked. 

“No. They’re white gold,” she told him. 

“Do you have any in silver? Like pure silver?” 

She looked at him curiously. It was an odd request and pure silver, despite popular belief was actually more expensive than gold. “We have a few, but not many. They aren’t very popular.”

“Can I see them?” Gabriel asked seeing that she wasn’t going to get them. 

She came back with a smaller tray and Gabriel looked them over. Most of them were pretty crappy, but then one caught his eye. He pulled it out and looked critically at it as a smile started to break out on his face. “That one has a silver band, but as you can see there is a gold filling in the center and twelve diamonds set in the gold,” she explained. 

It looked modest at first glance, but was really pretty extreme overall. It was perfect. “I’ll take it,” he said with a grin. 

When he pulled back into the motel, Dean met him outside, hand outstretched for the keys. “So what was so damn important?” he asked. Gabriel couldn’t help but grin. There was no way he was going to be able to keep this completely to himself anyway so he just pulled the ring box out of his pocket and opened it to show Dean. “Holy shit! Seriously?!” he asked with wide eyes. It wasn’t really that surprising. They were both so wrapped up in each other that it was only a matter of time. “When?” 

“Not sure yet. Gotta figure that part out,” Gabriel said with a shrug. He wanted everything to be perfect.


	17. Chapter 17

Gabriel gladly accepted the ribbing that accompanied Dean’s help to make his proposal perfect. He knew he’d probably never live it down, but he didn’t really care. He found the perfect spot, a couple towns over and set things in motion. The three of them drove out there, and it took some creativity to keep Sam from looking in the trunk at one point, and Gabriel mentioned the park he had read about that he wanted to see and asked Sam to go with him. Sam couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t see it during the day, but he seldom denied his irrepressible lover anything, so they took a moonlit walk through the park. 

Sam noticed Gabriel checking his watch every few minutes, and was curious as to why, and was just getting ready to ask while they were walking across the bridge over the small duck pond, but his question was cut off with a soft, loving kiss. “Gabriel?” Sam started to ask when suddenly there was a cracking sound in the air and Sam looked up to see the fireworks going off and when he looked back to Gabriel, he was on one knee holding out an open ring box. 

“Will you marry me?” he asked. He’d had a whole speech planned but now that the moment was here his mouth was dried up and his palms were all sweaty and he didn’t think he could get out any more words if he tried. 

Sam’s jaw dropped as he looked back and forth between the fireworks, the ring, and Gabriel for a good long moment before he realized that Gabriel was still waiting for an answer and didn’t look to be doing so good and he managed a nod and a quiet, “Yes.”

Gabriel managed to breathe again as a huge grin broke across his face and he slid the ring on Sam’s finger and jumped into his arms. “I love you, my Samshine. More than life,” he said as he kissed Sam soundly. 

Sam kissed him back just as eagerly, before holding him close and watching the fireworks. “How’d you arrange the fireworks?” he asked in awe. 

“Dean,” was the only explanation Gabriel gave or needed.

“So he knew…” 

“Yep. Had to take the impala to get the ring and that caused a huge third degree,” Gabriel said with a laugh. 

“I can’t believe he let you take it at all,” Sam said laughing along with him as the fireworks died out. He buried his face in Gabriel’s neck, unable to believe that this was really happening. He and Gabriel were getting married. “So how should we do this?” Sam asked nuzzling against Gabriel’s neck and pressing a soft kiss there. 

“Well as much as I would love a huge circus of a wedding, it doesn’t really fit with the lifestyle, so I figure next time we pass through a state that it’s legal in, we can take a detour to the courthouse and handle it that way,” Gabriel said with a shrug. He didn’t want to make it into something that would turn into a headache and make Sam think twice. 

“How about we do something in the middle?” Sam asked. “Like plan a small ceremony, invite Bobby and Dean, and um…” Sam wracked his brain for other people they were friendly with. “Jodi, Rufus…” he ran out of names. They really didn’t have that many people in their lives at all, but that was okay because the few there were he would trust with everything he had. 

“Yeah. That sounds nice,” Gabriel agreed. 

 

As they were heading back to the motel, Dean said, “So I talked to Bobby. He found us a case. Bunch of missing persons. They’re claiming aliens, but we know better obviously.”

“Really? We’re taking an alien case?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“We’ve been sitting on our hands for weeks now. I’ll take anything at this point,” Dean told him, getting reluctant agreement from the other two. They had all been getting restless. They grabbed their stuff from the motel and checked out, heading for Elwood Indiana. 

They were in town for all of a day before Gabriel said, “Yeah. Not aliens.”

“I think we already knew that much,” Dean said rolling his eyes. 

“Yes, but do you know what it is?” Gabriel asked smugly. 

“No, but apparently you do so enlighten us, oh wise one,” Dean joked. 

“Fairies,” Gabriel deadpanned, causing both Sam and Dean to burst into laughter that only stopped when they realized that Gabriel wasn’t laughing with them. 

“You’re not serious,” Sam asked. 

“I’m dead serious, and I’d bet you anything they’re holed up in the clockmaker’s shop and that he’s the one that summoned them.”

“So how do we kill them?” Dean asked. 

“We don’t,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“But…” Sam started before Gabriel interrupted him. 

“We can’t kill them, but we can send them home. They can’t cross into this world unless a portal is opened for them from this side. We find out how the old man opened the portal and we can send them back through.”

Of course it ended up being more complicated than that, Dean ended up getting arrested for tackling a midget, and Sam and Gabriel were left to finish handling the problem. They would bail Dean out later, the idiot. As Sam was getting beat up by the lepracaun, Gabriel just rolled his eyes and popped one of the salt rounds out of his pocket and cut it open. He whistled for attention and then poured it on the ground. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Sam grumbled getting a chuckle from Gabriel before he pulled out the book and read the correct spell to end all this mess. Gabriel never minded throwing around some of his money to smooth their way and wasted no time in getting Dean’s charges dropped and blowing town, not that he would ever let him live this one down. 

 

They knocked out a few more easy cases, before they encountered one a little more difficult. Something was kidnapping virgin girls and one of them had been taken right out of a plane. When they found out that whatever it was happened to be stealing gold as well, Gabriel’s eyes went wide. “It can’t be,” he almost whispered. 

“Can’t be what?” Sam asked. 

“Dragons. Everything fits, but they’ve been extinct for almost a thousand years,” Gabriel told them. 

“So how could they become…un-extinct?” Dean asked. 

Gabriel got up and starting pacing for a while as he thought about it. “Oh son of a bitch!” he exclaimed kicking a chair after a few minutes. “The alphas. Whoever was hunting the alphas, must be doing a good job. If previously extinct creatures are returning it means the mother is stirring. Damnit!”

“This is bad,” Sam said wide-eyed. 

“Very bad,” Gabriel agreed. “We have to find out who is doing this and shut it down before she is completely woken.” 

“But we can’t just leave the dragons,” Dean pointed out. 

“Right. Of course not. Okay let’s split up. Sammy, see if you can get any leads on who or what is hunting alphas and why. Maybe start with Bobby and see if he’s gotten any reports of stranger than normal circumstances. Dean and I will handle the dragons.”

Sam wasn’t happy with that at all. In all the time they had been hunting together, he and Gabriel had never split up. Not with Gabriel going into danger and Sam staying behind anyway. Gabriel saw Sam’s hesitation and said, “Don’t worry Samshine. Dragons require speed and blades. My specialties. I’ll be fine. Soon as we find a dragon sword anyway.”

With Bobby’s help they managed to track down a college professor that had possession of the last known dragon sword in existence, but of course it was trapped in a stone with some pretty advanced spell work. “I might be able to tweak or undo the spells holding it there, but it will take time. Way too much time.”

“How much time?” Dean asked curiously. 

“Years,” Gabriel said. 

“Yeah. That’s too much. Well guess I get to King Arthur this mother,” he said as he tried to pull the sword from the stone to no avail. 

“Here let me try,” Gabriel said. 

“You think you could do it where I can’t?” Dean asked skeptically. 

“We don’t know what criteria this spell has. Maybe I meet it where you don’t,” Gabriel said as he tried to pull it from the stone and surprisingly enough it worked. “Hey what do you know? I’m worthy!” he crowed victoriously to rub it in. 

“Yeah whatever. Let’s just go gank some dragons,” Dean grumbled. 

They managed to take out all the dragons in the town and free the girls, but the ones they killed implied that there were others and when Gabriel found the book, he flipped through it and cursed. “They’re busting the mother out of purgatory. And soon judging by the looks of things. Let’s get back to Sam. It might already be too late to stop this.”


	18. Chapter 18

They all buckled down after that and holed up at Bobby’s spending every spare moment trying to puzzle something out about what was going on and why. Gabriel spent a lot of time pouring over the book that Bobby was also enamored with, but couldn’t read nearly as well as Gabriel could. As soon as it was mentioned Jodi had taken over the plans for the wedding ceremony so they weren’t distracted with that at all. They had already done the few jobs they had to do, like pick out the rings and the cake, so they were fine leaving the rest in her hands. 

It was roughly a week before the scheduled ceremony when Sam had an idea. “Maybe we’re going about this all wrong.”

“How so?” Gabriel asked. 

“We’re working under the assumption that whoever is behind this is after the alphas which is pissing off the mother and causing her to organize a jailbreak from purgatory,” Sam said. 

“Yeah. Exactly,” Dean said confused. 

“Well what if purgatory is the goal and everything else is just a means to an end,” Sam suggested. 

“What would anyone want in purgatory?” Bobby asked. 

“I don’t…oh!...oh hell no! Nobody could possibly be so stupid,” Gabriel said as he got a crazy idea. 

“Little explanation please, love,” Sam prodded. 

“You remember what Balthazar said about gathering souls and how valuable they are?” Gabriel asked getting nods from both of them. “Well purgatory is chock full of untouched souls, but it’s too dangerous. There’s a lot more than souls there. Worse even than the mother. Nobody would be so stupid as to pop that box.”

“Let’s assume they are…you think Balthazar is behind it?” Dean asked. 

“It’s as good a theory as any right now. It’s worth looking into at least,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

Finding Balthazar, however, proved more difficult than anyone had anticipated and by the time the ceremony rolled around, they were no closer than they were to begin with. Sam kept fretting about it, until Gabriel said, “Enough. Today is about us. It’s about being happy and relaxed and getting married. The rest of the world can wait one damn day. Please Sam.”

Sam took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” Sam said pulling Gabriel in for a kiss. “I love you, Gabe. Forever.”

“And I love you my Samshine,” Gabriel said twirling a lock of Sam’s hair around his finger. “Now let’s go get married hmm?” 

“Absolutely,” Sam said with a grin. 

 

Jodi had done a nice job within the time restraints they’d given her. Gabriel had given her a pretty much unlimited budget, but Sam wanted everything low-key so it was a perfect blend of beautiful and simple and it went off without a hitch. In lieu of an actual ‘reception’ due to the low number of attendees they just popped the cork and partied well into the night. All of Gabriel’s ids already had matching names to Sam’s and since they got married under aliases they couldn’t exactly change any names legally, but it didn’t matter. They were still married. And happy. 

The next day though, it was back to work. Sam and Gabriel had promised each other a honeymoon when all this was over, but until then, they had too much to do. It was about a week later when Balthazar found them. Gabriel had been out getting something out of the impala and so missed all the spell-work that the rogue seraph was doing and came back in the room just in time to be thrown through the window with the boys and land on…a mattress? What the hell?

“CUT!” A loud voice yelled and all three of them looked up to see camera crews scrambling around. “Richard! What are you doing here? How did you get in here?”

Gabriel looked around before he realized the guy was talking to him. He was usually pretty good at thinking on his feet, but he had no frame of reference to go by and not the slightest clue what was going on, so he just settled for a shrug and, “I don’t know.”

“Whatever. Let’s just take a break,” the loud guy said and then both Winchesters were swept away from him. He tried to stick with Sam, but was cornered by the loud guy who was giving him some sort of lecture about sneaking on set and messing up scenes. He listened carefully if only to try and pick up a little more of the situation they were in. 

By the time he was able to hook back up with the guys, he had figured out that apparently their lives were a television show in whatever reality Balthazar had sent them too, and Sam and Dean had the full names of their counterparts so they went back to ‘Jensen’s’ trailer to try and figure out a little more about their current situation. They picked on Dean for being a soap opera and then dug up what they could on Sam. They didn’t have a last name for ‘Richard’ though so Sam just looked through the show to see who had played Gabriel. 

“Huh. So it looks like your name is Richard Speight Jr,” Sam said. 

“Junior? I’m a junior? Ugh.” 

“Okay, so what now?” Dean asked. 

“Well first we need to find out as much as we can about this world as a whole,” Gabriel said. He needed to know what they would be facing here. 

After searching for a while Sam said, “Okay so this is weird. I can’t find any sign of…well…anything.” 

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked getting a sinking feeling about this. 

“No ghosts or demons or angels. All the supernatural crap we deal with seems to be just make believe here,” Sam said. 

Gabriel deflated and practically fell into the seat across from Sam, let his forehead fall on the table and put his arms over his head as he took deep breaths. Once he collected himself he looked up. “Okay. So we are in a dead world. Meaning no magic. Meaning we can’t do a spell to get home. Meaning we are stuck here unless someone there figures out what is going on and how to get us back.”

“There’s no way we can even tell them?” Sam asked. 

“I don’t know. What do you remember about what got us here?” Gabriel asked. 

“He mixed up a bunch of ingredients in a bowl. Um…dead sea brine, lambs blood, and…bone of a lesser saint,” Sam said. 

“And used it to draw,” Dean held out a paper, “that symbol on the window he threw us through.

“Okay. So we are in a parallel universe. Which means there is no good way of communicating between the worlds,” Gabriel said. 

“No good way?” Sam asked curiously. If they were talking about being trapped forever, they may need to redefine bad. 

“We could technically communicate via blood channeling, but that would involve killing someone and even then we could only talk to someone able to receive such a call, so…”

“Yeah, not happening,” Dean said defeated. “So what? We just wait?”

“Unfortunately,” Gabriel sighed. “And I doubt they’ll let us stay here, even if this trailer weren’t so small, so let’s see if any of us live around here.”

“Where is here?” Sam asked so they all started looking around for any mail. “Vancouver Canada.”

“We’re not even in the United States anymore?!” Dean exclaimed as though it were a travesty. 

Gabriel just ignored them and pulled out the wallet he had, “Apparently I live in LA,” he read off his license. 

“Texas,” Dean said, doing the same.

“Vancouver,” Sam said with a relieved sigh. 

“Well looks like we’re all staying with Sammy here,” Gabriel said cheerfully. 

After a little mishap with what was apparently a fake impala, they found out they had a driver and had him take them to Sam’s house and all their jaws dropped at the opulence. They puttered around and joked with Sam about it for a bit until someone else came in and they all turned and repressed snarls as they saw Ruby. It was all Gabriel could do not to kill her when she kissed Sam and sneered at the other two. 

As soon as she left the room, Gabriel said, “Oh hell no. We are not staying here.” He started to drag Sam towards the door. 

“Hang on. Not so fast,” Dean started to say. 

“No way in hell am I letting my husband share a bed with some bimbo,” Gabriel said heatedly with a glare. 

“I’m not saying you should! Just relax a second and let me talk,” Dean said trying to placate the bristly man. “I’m just saying we don’t have to leave right this second. She just said she’s going out. We can take a little time and figure out our options, maybe do a little more research and figure out where to go.” 

Sam stood in front of Gabriel, running his hands up and down his husband’s arms. “No way am I ever touching anyone but you, Gabe. You know that.” He pulled Gabriel in for a kiss, which, in retrospect was a mistake since his ‘wife’ chose that moment to come down the stairs, screamed at him for a minute, slapped him, and then stormed out. Dean started snickering, and Sam just gave a sheepish shrug and said, “It was worth it,” as he pulled Gabriel in for another kiss to calm him down again.

It only took a minute of exploring to find the study which had two computers and Sam and Dean each went to one, Gabriel standing behind Sam, draped over him to read over his shoulder. So he was feeling a little possessive at the moment. It was understandable. Sam was seeing what else he could find out about their personal lives, admitting that he probably should have done that before they came here. “So looks like all three of us are married here. I’m not seeing anything about kids thankfully. It could be a problem if we end up having to stay here,” Sam said. 

“Well we’ll just have to get divorces,” Gabriel said firmly. 

“Obviously,” Sam said fondly, reaching up a hand to place over Gabriel’s where it rested on his shoulder. “But let’s not give up on getting home just yet.” 

“Okay so it looks like my counterpart is already registered at a hotel nearby. It’s a suite booked through the next four nights so we should all be good to stay there,” Dean chimed in. 

“Perfect. Let’s get out of this hellhole,” Gabriel said already heading for the door.


	19. Chapter 19

They made it to the hotel and tried to figure out how to handle things. “Okay so we’re not giving up on getting home yet, but there’s nothing we can do from our side, so what do we do in the meantime?” Sam asked. 

“I say we stick nearby, you two need to go to ‘work’ since that’s where we came through and that is likely where they’ll get us back from,” Gabriel suggested. 

“What about you? You’ll have to come with us,” Sam pointed out. 

“You two seem to be the stars of the show, so I’m sure if you put your feet down they’ll let me in, even if they aren’t too happy about it.”

“But we don’t know anything about acting!” Dean exposed the main flaw in the plan. 

“You’ll just have to wing it,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “It’s not that hard. You do it all the time anyway.”

“Um…Gabe…we’ve never acted a day in our lives,” Sam said confused. 

“Not on set or anything, but come on. All that pretending you do to be FBI agents or electricians or whatever other gig we think up for a job…that’s acting.”

“Well it’s a little different with all those cameras and lights and people,” Dean grumbled and Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh. Who would’ve thought that Dean would be the one to get stage fright. 

It was a good thing they were there when Virgil came through or who knew what could have happened. It ended up being a bloodbath anyway, but at least they had avoided the initial one. When they did get pulled back and found out that Balthazar had been working for Cas and used them as bait to buy time, they were all pissed but no one more so than Gabriel. “You little bastard,” he hissed. “You know I want no parts of this little pissing contest and then you throw me, my husband, and my brother in law into another fucking dimension as bait for the very people we want nothing to do with? What the hell gives you the right?”

“Husband?” Cas said wide-eyed as he looked between Gabriel and Sam and it finally dawned on him just how low he had fallen in their esteem that not only was he not invited, he wasn’t even informed. 

Gabriel just ignored him and turned to Balthazar, “And you. We’ve been looking for you for weeks. Are you after purgatory?” 

“What? Heavens no. I know better than that,” Balthazar said rolling his eyes. 

“Well someone apparently doesn’t know better, and since last we knew you were stocking up on souls…” Dean jumped in. 

“I’ll take the ones that are easy to get. I’m not about to start that kind of war for them. I’m trying to avoid doing too much work after all. That’s rather the point.” 

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at him searchingly for a moment, but had to admit that it made sense. He could see no signs of deceit and he cursed. “Great. We’re back to square one again.”

 

Soon after they ended tracking insanity up the interstates and wound up in a hunter convention. Not only had they run into Bobby and Rufus who had apparently run into each other, they ran across Samuel and Gwen too. Turned out they were all that was left of the Campbell clan after a run-in that Samuel was very tight lipped about, or tried to be. No one could stay silent very long with Gabriel around. He had a way of wheedling any information out of anyone. 

When they found out that he was still after the alphas, and that was how he lost the rest of his family they were all pissed. “Damnit Samuel!” Dean yelled. “We warned you! We told you that going after the alphas would bring the mother into the picture! And now we’re all screwed thanks to you!”

“Wait! You knew!?” Gwen asked Samuel heatedly. “And you didn’t tell any of us? You bastard! They died for this bullshit and for what?!” 

“Enough! Everyone just calm down and take a step back. There will be time for arguments but this isn’t it,” Gabriel took control. “We need to know who is sending you after the alphas, Samuel.”

“No one…”

“Bullshit. No human has known anything about the alphas for thousands of years and suddenly you pop back to life and are hunting them? No. There is someone pulling your strings. Who is it?” 

“Crowley,” he said in a defeated tone. 

“CROWLEY?!” Dean roared. “You’re working for the damn king of hell? Are you insane?!”

“Dean!” Gabriel snapped. “Argue later. Let’s just figure out how to get out of this mess now.” 

“I need to take a walk,” Dean said. “I’ll check the perimeter.”

When Dean wasn’t back after a few minutes, Gwen went to check on him. When they heard a gunshot, they all took off to find Gwen bleeding out on the floor and Dean nowhere to be seen. Gabriel took off at a dead sprint, gun drawn, in the direction Dean would have gone, Sam hot on his heels, while the others, knowing they wouldn’t be able to keep up, tried to save Gwen, to no avail. 

Gabriel skidded to his knees next to where Dean was lying on the floor and checked his pulse. Just as Sam was coming up, Gabriel looked at him and said, “He’s alive.” 

The next thing he knew, Sam was yanking him back away from Dean as a worm crawled out of his ear and Dean was waking up. Gabriel tried to stomp the thing, but it was too fast and disappeared in the grate before he got to it. What followed was a complete clusterfuck that ended in Samuel and Rufus dead and Bobby halfway there, but they finally got the damn khan worm, as Dean had named it. None of them gave a rat’s ass about Samuel’s death and while they felt bad for Gwen’s, they didn’t know her that well and that was the breaks of being a hunter. Rufus though…that was a blow. At least they had come out of it with more information then they went in with. Possibly even enough to prevent another catastrophe. It didn’t make losing Rufus any easier, but at least he had died for something. 

Sam did some fancy tracking using the GPS in Gwen’s car to locate their base of operations. It was Samuel’s fault they were in this mess and they needed all the information they could get about what he had been up to. They weren’t going to confront Crowley. Not yet. Not until they had something to go on and some kind of plan. Besides, Eve was the current threat. They needed to get her out of the picture before she turned the whole damn world into monsters. “So what can kill Eve? There has to be something,” Sam asked. 

“Nothing we can get our hands on,” Gabriel said frustrated. 

“Okay, so what can’t we get our hands on?” Dean asked as they were all searching through Samuel’s books and journals. 

“Phoenix Ash. But they are extinct too. And Eve would never bring them back for that very reason,” Gabriel told them. 

“I have a really bad idea,” Sam said hesitantly. “And you’re not gonna like it.”

“What’s your idea?” Gabriel asked suspiciously. 

“Well I know where and when a Phoenix was…” Sam held up an old worn journal. “And Cas does owe us…big time…”

“You want us to ask him to send us back in time so we can get Phoenix ash?” Dean asked incredulously. 

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. It was the best option they had. He despised having to go to Castiel, but they didn’t have a choice. “Fine,” he sighed. 

Cas, eager to get back in their good graces, agreed to send them back, but he could only give them twenty-four hours. 

Gabriel, more than once, had to remind the Winchesters that he’d lived in this time and he knew what he was talking about. He was even excellent on horseback. Dean ended up being the new sheriff, and Gabriel went with Sam to get Samuel Colt. The last thing they needed was for the younger hunter to fall off his horse along the way. Not to mention, Gabriel still had more than a few tricks up his sleeves. 

Once they got there, Gabriel popped in and said, “Samuel! Old buddy. Good to see you again.”

“Loki!” he exclaimed. “What the hell?!”

“It’s a long story. I’m from the future, and human now, and married to your great however many times grandson here, and we need either you or the gun in town post haste.”

“You mean the cursed gun you helped me make?” Samuel said not very happily. 

“That’s the one, but it’s not cursed. Really. What did you expect when you went around bragging about a gun that would kill demons? Obviously they want it and you gone.”

Sam had more questions than he could even begin to ask, but they were short on time. Gabriel would get the third degree later. “The future huh?” Colt said suspiciously. 

Sam pulled out his palm pilot to show him. If he knew Gabriel as Loki then he knew him as a trickster and had no reason to believe him, so he could help at least. They managed to convince the old man who reluctantly handed over the gun but refused to deal with it himself. 

On the way back, Sam started to interrogate Gabriel, which was easier said than done while on running horses. “You knew Samuel Colt? You helped him make the gun? He’s my ancestor?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Gabriel said and sighed when he realized that Sam wasn’t just going to accept that answer. “I ran across him once and he made an entreaty for some kind of weapon that would kill demons. He happened to be a gunsmith, so I helped him make the colt. As far as him being your ancestor, I thought you knew that. I mean how else would your grandfather have his journal and all the similarities, including the frequency of the name Samuel to pop up in your family. I thought it was obvious.”

They ended up missing the Phoenix ash before Cas pulled them back and were about to chalk it up as a lose until someone knocked on Bobby’s door with a package. Apparently Samuel Colt had retrieved the ash for them and sent it back along with Sam’s palm pilot, broken now. “Well what do you know. The old guy came through for us,” Gabriel said cheerfully and they started making plans to go after Eve.


	20. Chapter 20

Before Cas left they managed to convince him to find a friendly vamp that Sam knew to see if she had any information on Eve and they managed to get a town before Cas fried her. Sam was upset about it, but Gabriel just shrugged it off. He didn’t particularly care about another dead vamp, no matter how hard she tried to be good, and if Cas would kill his own brothers, he wasn’t the least bit surprised that he would kill pretty much anyone. 

Cas, still trying to get back in their good books, insisted on going along to help, and despite not wanting the seraph around, Gabriel accepted it when no one else had any issues. He had to admit that having someone with powers handy when going against a near god-like being could definitely come in handy. Turned out it wasn’t that simple though, because as soon as they got to the town, Eve was sapping Cas’ powers. Gabriel couldn’t help but make a snarky remark about useless angels and that pretty much set the tone for the entire experience. 

As much as Gabriel wanted to strangle Dean for his idiotic improvisation, he had to admit that it had saved their bacon even if it had been entirely too risky, and as Eve lay dying from the Phoenix ash in Dean’s blood, Cas’ powers returned and he blasted the diner full of monsters and then healed Dean. Unfortunately, they lost the infected kid to demons, but they still chalked it up to a win.

Once they got back to the car, Cas said, “So she is gone, but we still don’t know how she got here in the first place.” 

“Yeah we do. There was a spell that opened a portal to purgatory that she escaped through,” Gabriel said absentmindedly. 

“There was? What spell? Where did you find it? How does it work?” Cas asked. 

Gabriel narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “It was in a book that we don’t have anymore. I don’t remember anything about the spell, just what it did. You know the human mind doesn’t retain information all that well,” he said easily while watching for Cas’ reactions. 

“You don’t remember anything at all? The ingredients? The language? Nothing?” Cas asked. 

“Nope. Sorry. Didn’t pay much attention. Once we realized it was possible all we were worried about was stopping it and when we failed…well we couldn’t exactly let that information fall into any other hands,” Gabriel said. 

“What about you? Do either of you remember anything?” Cas asked Sam and Dean. 

“Nope. Sorry. We couldn’t read it. All we know is that it wasn’t English or Latin,” Sam said with a shrug, not sure why Gabriel was lying to Cas, but willing to play along for now. 

“I see. Well if you think of anything will you let me know?” he asked. 

“Sure thing, Cassie,” Gabriel waved him off. 

Once they were in the car and headed down the road Sam started to ask, “Why…”

“Shh,” Gabriel cut him off, pulling out his knife and cutting his hand. He knew better than to get blood on the impala so he pulled out a large notebook that he kept for this purpose and did the angel banishing sigil and slapped his hand on it. “Okay that’ll keep him away for a while. Yes, I lied to him. Did you see how interested he was in the spell? Most importantly how it worked? I hate to say it, but I think either he’s working for Crowley or Crowley is working for him.”

“Why would he do that?” Dean asked. 

“The souls. Right now, Raphael is the last archangel. No one can take him on. If Cas can get the power from the souls of purgatory, he’ll be powerful enough to win. I should have seen it before, but I didn’t think even he would stoop so low.”

“You can’t really think that Cas is working with a demon?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“I’m not positive, but it fits. And there is no good reason for him to have been so interested in that spell.” 

“We have to find out for sure. We have to know. We can’t just go on suspicion Gabriel,” Dean said. He knew how biased the former archangel was against Cas, and needed to be sure before they went plotting behind his back. 

“Okay. Fine. When we get back we call him, trap him in a ring of holy fire and find out for sure one way or another,” Gabriel agreed. It would be good to have it out with him anyway. 

 

As soon as he was faced with the holy fire, Cas folded like a cheap suit. “I’m doing what I have to do to end this war,” he defended himself. 

“To kill Raphael. A brother,” Gabriel said. 

“Who is trying to open the cage again. Who wants to release Lucifer and Michael, take Sam and Dean…your new family…to start the apocalypse all over again.”

“Oh don’t give me that load of crap. If that’s all it was you would have come to me and I would have told you that he can’t succeed.”

“What do you mean brother?” Cas asked. 

Gabriel let the ‘brother’ go and just answered the question. “The first demon is dead. The seals can never be opened again. The only other way in the cage is the rings, but other than Death’s they are all destroyed. The cage can’t be opened again, save by dad himself. And why wouldn’t you have come to me about it if that’s all it was. You should have known I would do what was necessary to protect them, and it would have been the perfect way to drag me into your little war, so why don’t you tell us the real reason.”

“The angels need free will. Not a ruler,” Cas said firmly. 

Gabriel threw up his arms and started pacing. “This is your fault,” he half-heartedly accused Dean before turning back to Cas. “No. They don’t. Angels aren’t built for free will, Castiel. The archangels are to some degree, but seraphs? The entire concept is lost on them. They can come to develop it over time, but it can’t be forced on them. They need a leader. I’ll agree that Raphael isn’t the best leader, but asking them to embrace free will is like throwing fish on land and expecting them to walk. So congratulations. You’ve been murdering your family for nothing,” he hissed as he stormed out, slamming the door so hard behind him that it nearly came off the hinges. 

Sam rushed after him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Not right now Sam. Please.”

“Gabriel…Let me be here for you,” Sam said softly.

“I will. Just…not now. I’m too pissed right now. I just need to blow off some steam,” Gabriel said through gritted teeth. “Alone,” he added just in case Sam got any ideas. 

“Okay. Just…be careful,” Sam told him. 

“I will and make sure he’s gone when I get back or I won’t be responsible for my actions,” Gabriel said as he stormed off, not even looking back at Sam. 

When Gabriel got back, Cas was gone and there was angel-proofing up over the house. Gabriel walked through and took a look, making a few corrections here and there before he was satisfied, before he went looking for Sam and found him in their room. The hunter looked up from his book and gave Gabriel a sympathetic smile, holding his arms open hopefully and Gabriel just collapsed in them and cried. He cried for all the family that he’d lost and he didn’t even know who or how many there were. He cried for Cas’ betrayal. He cried for everything else that he’d lost. He cried until he fell asleep. 

They woke in the morning to pounding on the door and when they made their way downstairs, Dean said, “We got a problem. The book is gone.”

“Damnit!” Gabriel yelled throwing a lamp at the wall. 

“Hey now!” Bobby said indignantly. 

“We’ll replace it,” Sam said softly trying to placate the old man. 

“We should have thought of that. We called him right into the house with the book after he knew it existed. Damnit!” Gabriel raged.

“He can’t possibly still be thinking of doing this,” Sam said wide-eyed. 

“Even if he did want out, Crowley wouldn’t, and who knows what he has to hold over Castiel’s head. Not to mention, I’m not so sure he does want out. You should know how well he listens to people,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“We have to stop him,” Dean said. 

“But how?” Sam asked. 

“We find out how to open purgatory ourselves and hope that there is something that will help us stop it,” Gabriel said. 

“The book didn’t tell you?” Bobby asked. 

“No. It said how to create a crack, but that’s it and that wouldn’t be enough to give Cas an edge in a fight.” 

“But it’s apparently enough for him to start, so let’s go over everything and see if we can follow his train of thought,” Sam suggested, knowing that Gabriel would have retained a great deal of the knowledge in that book. He still had a quick mind, even if it wasn’t as good as an archangel’s.


	21. Chapter 21

Their research led them back to Dr. Vizyak’s door. Turned out she might just be from purgatory herself. They were too late though…mostly. They found her bleeding out on the floor. She was able to tell them how to open purgatory before she died though and the hunters realized they were racing the clock. The eclipse was in a week. 

When they managed to track Cas down, he sighed and put a hand to Sam’s head. “I didn’t want it to come to this. I will fix him if you just leave me be until this is over,” he said as he disappeared. 

“What did he mean fix him?” Gabriel asked in a high-pitched voice. As if to answer the question Sam fell to the floor clutching his head. “Sammy? Come on Samshine. Talk to me sweetheart. Please.”

Sam was just able to grind out one word, “Hell.”

“Oh god,” Gabriel gasped sitting on the floor and pulling Sam into his lap, rubbing his back and running a finger through his hair. “Shh. I got you Sammy. It’s okay. Come back to me sweetheart. Please.”

It took a few hours, both of Gabriel’s legs were asleep and his back was on fire, but Sam finally snapped out of it. Dean had been pacing nervously, but recognized that Gabriel would be better to handle it so let them be. “Gabe?” Sam croaked through his raw throat. 

“I’m here Samshine. I’m here. What happened? What did he do?” 

“It’s like…all my memories of hell have been shoved to the front of my mind and they’re so…vivid.”

“But you made it through them? You’re okay now?” he asked hopefully. Hoping that it would be that easy. 

“Yes and no. They are still there, burning away, I can just…I don’t know…think around them now I guess. At least for the moment.”

For the first time in his very long existence, Gabriel was actually tempted to kill a brother. He still wouldn’t cross that line, not even for this, but boy was he tempted. “We will find a way to fix this Sam. I swear.”

“I know. Just…you can’t let him succeed, Gabriel. Don’t let him win. Please,” Sam begged him. He knew the easiest way to fix it would be to hope Cas kept his word and fixed him if they stayed out of it and he wasn’t about to let anyone sacrifice the world for him. 

Gabriel understood that. He knew that it would destroy Sam if he let Cas go through with this. He didn’t like it, but he had to accept it. “Okay Sammy. We won’t. I promise.” Sam had slid off Gabriel’s lap when he snapped out of it, but it was still quite a while before Gabriel managed to get up and even then he did so stiffly, earning Sam a smack when he apologized. Gabriel still hadn’t managed to break him from that habit completely. 

Balthazar had apparently figured out what Cas was up to and tipped off the hunters where and when it was going down. They managed to find the right warehouse at the right time and all four of them rolled up. Sam refused to stay behind. He had gotten better at thinking around hell, even though there were still moments where it would overwhelm him, but he insisted that they needed all hands on deck. 

They got there in time to see Crowley and Raphael attempting the ritual, and it failing before Cas came in, taunted them a bit and then exploded Raphael. “NOO!” Gabriel screamed, rushing forward before being grabbed by Sam. He may have been a jerk, but he was the last of Gabriel’s big brothers. The last of the ones he had been closer to than anyone could imagine. The distraction allowed Dean to move behind Cas to stab him with an angel blade, only for Cas to throw him against the wall, the angel blade doing no damage at all. 

“The angel blade won't work, because I'm not an angel anymore. I'm your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord. Or I shall destroy you,” Castiel said firmly.

Bobby was the first to go to his knees followed by Dean and Sam, but Gabriel stayed on his feet glaring at him. “I didn’t bow before Lucifer when he was tearing me apart and I’m sure as hell not going to bow before you. There is only one god I will bow down for and he’s not here, so destroy me if you must.”

Castiel just sneered at him, “What a brave little ant you are. You know you're powerless, you wouldn't dare move against me again. That would be pointless. So I have no need to kill you. Not now.”

“Who are you?” Dean asked distastefully. This wasn’t Cas. Not at all. 

“I'm God. And if you stay in your place, you may live in my kingdom. If you rise up, I will strike you down. Not doing so well, are you Sam?”

“I'm fine,” Sam said annoyed. 

“You said you would fix him - you promised!” Dean cried. Gabriel knew better though. He knew that fixing Sam was on them now. Any trace of compassion that Cas may have had in the past was gone. Lost in the lust of power. 

“If you stood down, which you hardly did. Be thankful for my mercy. I could have cast you back into the pit,” he said heatedly. 

“Cas, come on, this is nuts! You can turn this around, please!” Dean tried one last time to reach his old friend. 

His only response was, “I hope for your sake this is the last you see me,” as he disappeared. 

They had the impala towed back to Bobby’s from where the demons had smashed it outside and spent most of the next few weeks just trying to keep Sam together and trying to keep their heads down. They couldn’t live with that forever though and they were all starting to buckle under the pressure so they all sat down with a drink. “So what now?” Bobby asked. 

“I don’t know Bobby. I just don’t know. I mean how do you fight god?” Dean asked. 

Gabriel slammed his glass on the desk, some of the whiskey sloshing out. “Stop saying that. He’s not god! He’s just a jumped up little seraph on a power trip.”

“Okay,” Sam said in a placating manner. “Okay, but he is more powerful than anything in existence and there is nothing in existence that will kill him, so the point still stands.”

“There is one thing. But I’m all out of favors,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“What do you mean?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Death,” Gabriel told them. “He can reap anyone, regardless of power or station.”

“That is true, but I’m hardly going to hop in to clean up your messes for you, Gabriel,” a drawling voice said from behind them. 

They all jumped to their feet at the sight of the last remaining horseman. “What are you doing here?” Sam asked in shock. 

“I have come to make a proposal,” he said. 

“What kind of proposal?” Gabriel asked positioning himself between the hunters and Death. 

“I will not clean up your messes for you, but I will allow you to clean it up,” he drawled. 

“I can’t do much of anything at the moment,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Ah, but you can with this,” Death held out a glowing blue jar. 

“My grace…” Gabriel said in awe as he started to reach for it only to have it snatched away. 

“Ah-ah-ah. We have yet to make a deal,” Death told him. 

“Even an archangel is no match for Cas now. He destroyed Raphael like it was nothing,” Sam pointed out. 

“That is true. A direct assault will not work. But there are ways,” Death told them. “Do you even want to hear my offer?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow and motioned him to continue. “I return your grace, you stop the little seraph and take over heaven.”

“Why?” Gabriel asked suspiciously. 

“Do you have any idea what kind of havoc those annoying little beasts will wreak if they are left to run amok without a leader? It’s a headache I don’t need.”

Gabriel bit his lip as he thought about it. What would it mean for him and Sam if he took it back? He wouldn’t be able to hunt with Sam and Dean anymore. He would have to spend more time in heaven. More time away from Sam. But he would be able to fix Sam’s mind. He looked nervously back at the hunter and Sam stepped up and wrapped his arm around Gabriel. “I’ll stand by you no matter what you decide, Gabe. I’m yours forever.”


	22. Chapter 22

Sam knew that Gabriel wouldn’t let the world go up in smoke if he could stop it. He knew what Gabriel would decide, and he wasn’t going to push the decision on him. Dean had a question though. “Wait a minute. Since you obviously didn’t use Gabriel’s grace for anything…why did you take it?” he asked curiously. 

“To teach him a lesson in humility. He knows why,” Death said coldly. 

Gabriel gave a sheepish shrug. “I may have threatened to bind him if he didn’t get your soul out of the cage.” 

“And should you ever do so again, I will not hesitate to reap you,” he threatened. 

“Understood,” Gabriel said. “And we have a deal.” He reached out a hand for his grace and Death handed it over. “You guys wanna kill the angel proofing? Won’t work against Castiel now anyway.” 

They didn’t need to because when Death left, he apparently got rid of the sigils too. Gabriel decided it would be better to take his grace back in outside so as not to risk destroying the house, so he took a walk. It was about fifteen minutes later that a beacon lit up the area that could be seen for miles away and then suddenly Sam’s lap was full of excited archangel kissing him passionately. “Oh come on!” Dean exclaimed covering his eyes. It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten carried away in front of him, and he doubted it would be the last. It was the first time they had disappeared before his eyes though and he heard the crash from upstairs followed by laughter and he rolled his eyes. He really was happy for them. They could worry about Cas tomorrow. 

Cas ended up finding them first though. Dean was walking outside in the salvage yard when Cas appeared next to him. “Dean. I need help.”

“Yeah. You do,” Dean said watching him warily. He’d seen on the news where he had slaughtered an entire political office. He quickly prayed for Gabriel who appeared next to him immediately, thankfully clothed and narrowed his eyes at Cas. “He wants help,” Dean said quickly before a snarkfest could start. 

“Okay, first thing we need to do is get all those souls back where they belong,” Gabriel said firmly. 

“Of course, brother. But there is no eclipse,” Cas told him. He could make one but he was afraid to use his power right now. Afraid it would wake them again. 

“I will make one,” Gabriel said. “I’ll be right back and then we can go.” He reappeared a moment later with Sam and then all four of them were back in the warehouse. Gabriel called the bottle with the right blood to his hand and handed it to Sam who started painting the sigil on the wall. Gabriel wasn’t taking his eyes off Cas. He knew what was hiding in his little brother’s body. 

As the souls were pouring back into purgatory, Gabriel could tell that the leviathan were hanging on inside Cas, so he placed his hand on Cas’ back and threw his power to expel them. The last thing any of them needed was Leviathan loose in the world. Once it was done Cas collapsed to the floor unconscious. Gabriel brought them all back to Bobby’s house and lay the seraph on the couch. “He’ll probably be out for a few days. Is okay to leave him here while I go check out heaven?”

Bobby nodded and Sam asked, “How long will you be gone?” 

“I don’t know Samshine. I’ll try to be back for at least a few hours a day, but I can’t make any promises for the first little while. I don’t know how much of a mess things are up there.”

“Well if we…” Sam trailed off not sure if Gabriel wanted anyone else to know. 

“Once I get the initial ruckus settled we’ll take care of the other thing we talked about. I promise,” Gabriel told him, giving him permission to tell the others if he wanted to. “If he wakes up before I get back, pray for me.” Sam nodded and kissed him soundly before he disappeared. 

“What other thing you talked about?” Dean asked curiously. 

“Binding us together in angelic marriage. That way I can visit heaven with him, and…um…” he knew that if he was going to tell them about the binding he couldn’t leave out the most important part, but he wasn’t sure how they would take it. 

“Just spit it out, boy,” Bobby said gruffly. 

“I’ll live forever,” Sam blurted out. 

“Oh. Okay,” Dean said with a shrug. He had pretty much assumed that as soon as Gabriel got his powers back he would do something to make sure that Sam didn’t die. It wasn’t a big surprise to him. 

 

Gabriel appeared in heaven and fell to his knees at the destruction he could see and all the voices that were missing. He took a moment to collect himself before heading towards the assembly area, knowing that all angels would have felt his presence and gathered there. He was met with gasps as they looked at him. They had all thought him dead. All they had felt was the presence of an archangel. They couldn’t tell who it was. “Raphael is dead,” he began. “Michael and Lucifer are in the cage which has been forever sealed. I am in charge now. Does anyone dispute this?” He waited a few minutes for anyone to say anything. He expected at least some of Castiel’s people to say something and when they didn’t he took the chance to look into their minds and when he saw the massacre that Cas had carried out. Destroying thousands of angels in one fell swoop, without them even being able to fight back, he fought back a wave of nausea. All he had after that was fear, not loyalty and when they felt his power leave, they were happy to leave him behind. 

“Good. Now things are going to be different now. I will not rule with an iron fist like Michael and Raphael did. We need time to heal and rebuild. There will be one rule above all others, from here on out. We are family. We do not fight each other and we do not kill each other. For any reason. If you harm or kill a brother or a sister from this point forward, you will be imprisoned. Is everyone clear?” He waited again and no one disputed anything he said. “Good. Now your job for right now, is to start cleaning this place up and putting it back together. I will return tomorrow to check your progress and assist.” He disappeared as soon as he was done speaking. If he didn’t get out of there soon he was going to fall apart. 

He reappeared back in Bobby’s living room and looked hatefully at the unconscious seraph as Sam came in. “Gabriel?” he questioned why the archangel was back so soon, not that he was complaining. Gabriel didn’t answer him at first and started to reach out his hand towards Castiel, flexing his fingers before he pulled it back again and fell to his knees. Almost. Sam caught him before he hit the floor and carried him upstairs, sitting on the bed and gathering his inconsolable husband in his lap. Gabriel could barely breathe much less speak and Sam knew that he wasn’t going to get anything out of him for a while. 

It was more than an hour before Gabriel’s sobs turned to sniffles, and Sam asked, “Do you want to talk about it?” 

“It was…it was a bloodbath,” Gabriel said burying his face in Sam’s chest. “I mean, the war, yeah a lot were lost, but after…after HE,” Gabriel couldn’t even say the name right now. “got all the power…he slaughtered thousands. They…they didn’t even…get a chance to…to fight back. He just…murdered them in…in cold blood. Thousands.”

“Jesus, Gabe,” Sam breathed out holding him closer. He couldn’t imagine what Gabriel must be feeling right now. He’d seen him nearly fall apart over the loss of one brother, but thousands. And at Cas’ hands. Now that little hand flex downstairs made sense. It must have been so tempting to kill him, but Sam knew that Gabriel would never have forgiven himself if he had. “I’m so sorry. Is there…anything I can do?” 

“Just hold me,” Gabriel whispered. 

“Always,” Sam whispered back pressing a kiss to his husband’s head.


	23. Chapter 23

Sam was rather tired, but he didn’t know how long he would have with Gabriel so he tried to fight it. Gabriel just gave him a watery smile. “Sleep Sam,” he said softly. “I’ll still be here when you wake up, and then, if you want, we can bond and I’ll take you to heaven with me.” He didn’t want to face that again without Sam by his side. 

“Of course I want, Gabriel. How many times do I have to tell you, you’re not getting rid of me,” he said with a grin and kissed his husband, soon to be bonded, soft and sweet as he settled down into the bed to go to sleep. Gabriel didn’t need to sleep anymore now that he had his powers back, but he stayed the whole night, finding comfort in his husband’s arms. 

Gabriel lived up to his promise the next morning and then, after breakfast and letting Dean and Bobby know they would be gone, they arrived back in heaven, this time directly in the meeting area, Gabriel and Sam standing on an elevated platform in the center. As the angels appeared, Sam squeezed Gabriel’s hand. He could see that this area was made for more than four times the number that was here. It was a very obvious reminder of how many had been lost. 

“This is Sam Winchester, my bonded mate,” Gabriel, rather than answer a hundred individual questions for those brave enough to ask, decided to address the issue now. “Yes, he was Lucifer’s vessel, but he is my soulmate. You will treat him with the same respect you treat me and he and his family fall under my protection as well. We will be assisting with the clean-up and repairs. Feel free to approach me if you need to speak with me.” He knew that he would be treated with reverence and awe for a while, but he hoped to get them to relax over time and treat him like a brother. The first step was to get down in the trenches with them and so he did. As he walked over to the nearest debris pile and started picking things up and putting them into vanishing bins he had conjured, he explained to Sam, “Most of the construction here is resistant to powers so that angels can’t just change things around on a whim.”

Sam, who was also moving things into the bins, gave a little chuckle. “Why do I get the feeling that you were at least partial inspiration for that?” 

“Because I married a very smart man,” Gabriel said with a cheeky wink. They worked all day, Gabriel snapping up food and water when Sam needed it, and spent a great deal of time chatting and laughing and even a little horsing around. He wanted to set an example that they didn’t have to be somber and purposeful all the time. Sure the work needed to get done but there was no reason they couldn’t have fun doing it. 

There were a few angels that had the nerve to come up and talk to Gabriel, and he greeted each one with a warm hug. That was his first step on his whole ‘loosen them up’ campaign. They returned them stiffly, with more than a little confusion. Angels weren’t accustomed to such things, but damned if they wouldn’t get that way with Gabriel around. He thought about instituting mandatory hugs, but no need to throw too much at them all at once. He could work up to it. 

It wasn’t until the end of the day that something happened to make him smile brightly. One of the younger angels came up to talk to him, but not for anything important or pressing just to say hello because he just wanted a hug. Gabriel gave him two and then sent him to Sam for one just for good measure. Sam really did give great hugs. He had his first convert, and more importantly he had a glimmer of hope that they could actually be a family again. 

When Sam started yawning, Gabriel said, “You should probably go get some rest. I’m gonna stick around and be visible for a bit.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Sam said pulling Gabriel into a searing kiss before the archangel sent him home with instructions to pray if he was needed or if Sam wanted to come back. 

Gabriel wasn’t sure if it was Sam’s absence or just a matter of them getting more used to him being there and the fact that he was approachable, but the rate of angels coming to talk to him increased as the night wore on. Not overly so, but some. And many of them had the same question. What was to be done about Castiel? He listened to any opinions, warned the ones who mentioned death of the new rules that even he had no intention of being exempt from, but made no promises. He told them that Castiel was current unconscious and no decisions would be made until he woke and was given a chance to explain himself. He did promise, however, that he would make an announcement when the time came and make the decision known. He also got a few policy questions, but fobbed them off for now. Right now they were rebuilding. They could worry about policy when their home didn’t look like a war zone. 

It was just after sunup on Earth when Gabriel got a prayer from Sam that Cas was awake and he booked it down there. It was one thing leaving him alone with Gabriel’s family when he was unconscious, but when he was awake was a different story. When the archangel arrived, Cas was arguing with Sam that he should go. “Not yet,” Gabriel said firmly. “Sit.”

“We’ll just…um…” Dean said uncomfortably, as he, Bobby, and Sam started to head out, but when Sam dropped a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder on his way out, Gabriel grabbed it. 

“Stay, Sam?” he asked. 

“Are you sure?” Sam asked. 

“You are my bonded, and as such my family is yours as are the concerns of heaven,” Gabriel said formally and that alone told Sam all he needed to know; that more than any of that, his husband needed his support, so he stayed. Once it was only the three of them left in the room, Gabriel turned to Cas. “I’ve already heard more than enough of your justifications for the war. I want to know if you have anything to say for yourself regarding what came after.”

“The leviathan…” Cas started. 

“Uh-uh. Not gonna fly. The Leviathan influenced the murder of the people at the political office. They had nothing to do with what happened in heaven,” Gabriel said narrowing his eyes at Cas who looked at him with wide eyes. “Yes. I am completely aware of what happened. I want to know if you have any justifications for your actions.”

“I do not,” Castiel said sadly looking down. If anyone had to rule heaven, at least it was Gabriel. He would be far better than Raphael or even Michael, and far more capable than himself. Cas could accept Gabriel as a leader. 

Gabriel took a deep breath as he solidified the decision he had come to in the likely event that Cas had no defense, but first he needed to speak to him as a brother. “Cassie,” he began, using the seraph’s nickname in seriousness for the first time in a long time. “You are my brother and I will always love you. I may have, over time, with some difficult, come to forgive you for the war. There were two sides and they were both unreasonable. What came after though…the brutal, cold-blooded, slaughter of thousands of our brothers. The incitement of terror in those remaining. That, I cannot forgive you for. I will not forgive you for.”

“What will you do with me, brother?” Cas asked as if readying himself for the gallows. 

“You will never step foot in heaven again. You will never seek out any angel or any Winchester, including Bobby, though if they seek you out, you are free to interact with them as they wish. You will be permitted to keep your grace, I will not make you fall, so long as you can use it responsibly. I will give you a chance to make some sort of amends, lacking though they may be.”

“What is your definition of responsibly?” Cas asked curiously. 

“Don’t draw undue attention to yourself. Never cause any harm to a human or an angel, not even in self-defense. The angels will be instructed not to harm you either, so extracting yourself from any situation without hurting anyone shouldn’t be difficult. Should you find yourself in a position to either fight back or die, you may pray for me and I will come. Should I need to speak with you or expand on your punishment in any way, I will always come myself. I will never send anyone in my stead.”

“I…understand, Bro…Gabriel.”

“I’m still your brother, Cassie,” Gabriel said reaching out a hand for the despondent seraph’s shoulder as the tears stung his eyes. He gave Cas’ shoulder a squeeze before he said, “Now go.” He was not about to fall apart in front of him, and sure enough, as soon as Cas left, Sam had to catch him as his knees buckled. 

 

The other angels were content with Castiel’s punishment, and over time a handful of them sook him out to make peace. Castiel for his part, worked within Gabriel’s guidelines. He performed minor miracles, never enough to draw too much attention, always fading into the background, never to be seen. He would occasionally save a human from a monster or a demon, taking great pleasure in every demon he killed, since he felt that Crowley played a part in his current predicament. Not a large part. He wasn’t absolving himself of his own decisions. He had let himself be led, but Crowley had done the leading. 

Crowley popped in on him once, wanting to form another partnership, apparently think a poor little orphaned seraph would make a pliable toy and the only thing that saved his life was Cas’ worry that killing the king of hell would draw undue attention. Needless to say, he learned better than to come near Cas again. He had also gotten his chance to make peace with Sam, Dean, and Bobby. They never became friends again. He never saw them again even after they had talked things out, but things were left in a much better place. 

Dean had quit hunting, but never married or had a family. He worked with Bobby at the salvage yard and as phone support for other hunters until Bobby’s death, when he took over everything. Sam on the other hand, while spending a great deal of time on earth with Dean, primarily stayed in heaven with his husband. It took a little while but the angels got used to having a human around, and he even managed to make friends with many of them. 

Gabriel never did getting around to instituting a mandatory hug rule, mostly because he didn’t need to. It didn’t take long before the angels relaxed enough to show affection with each other as a family should. Heaven had never been filled with so much laughter and joy. It really was heaven again. Most importantly, to Gabriel at least, it was home again. There were gaps that would never be filled, but that was just life. It went on. 

Sam also spent time with their friends and family in heaven, both those already there and those that followed after. Since he had an in with the big man, he was easily able to convince Gabriel to hook up a few particular heavens to Ash’s roadhouse and it became the hunter hangout in heaven much as it had been on earth, and both Sam and Gabriel could often be found knocking a few back with the crowd. Another major change in heaven was a new squad. Volunteer only as hunter support. It was made clear that the hunters should only call in case of life or death so as not to overwhelm angels with cleaning up the whole world, but should those situations arise, an angel would be dispatched to assist. 

Castiel, true to Gabriel’s word, never again stepped foot in heaven, but after a few thousand years, Gabriel sought him out to make his own peace. Like with the Winchesters, they never became friends again, but Gabriel would keep in touch every so often for a chat, sometimes bringing Sam along with him, and they were almost a family again. One of those families that only sees each other out of obligation on holidays and makes it through stilted conversation, but a family all the same.


End file.
